A New Mission
by Patriot Games
Summary: Chief and Cortana are transported to an alternate Earth after the end of Halo 3. This new world is full of dark secrets and mysteries as well as an evil plot to take over the world. But Chief saved Earth once, and with the help of some new allies he can do it again.
1. A new enemy

**(Hey Everyone, this is my first FanFic ever so I hope it works out, anyways thanks for reading)**

…

The Master Chief, Arbiter, and Cortana had just made it back to the UNSC Forward unto Dawn when the Halo ring fired and destroyed the flood for good. The Arbiter, having been at the front of the ship made it back to earth through slipspace but Chief and Cortana weren't so lucky though.

Chief heard the blast wave getting closer and Cortana knew that their section of the Dawn wouldn't make it.

"Chief we have to get further into the ship! Now!" Cortana said.

"Agreed" Chief said as he dashed for the airlock of the hanger.

Chief had made it about a quarter of the way down the hallway when the blast wave struck the Dawn. Chief was immediately incapacitated and Cortana was forced to reboot from the overwhelming power surge.

…

When Chief regained consciousness he realized that he was at the far end of the hallway he was running through. At first he had just thought it was the blast but he then realized that there was gravity at a normal 1.0 G level.

"Cortana" Chief called as he realized that she was still rebooting. "Cortana wake up!"

Cortana finally finished optimizing her systems and came online. "Chief! We're alive!" she exclaimed.

Chief rolled his eyes in his helmet. "Yes we are but what I want to know is if the artificial gravity generators are functional and if so why are they set to a 1.0 G level?"

Cortana hesitated and then said "Plug me into a terminal"

Chief found an AI compatible terminal and plugged Cortana's AI chip into it.

"Chief, you're not going to like this." She said worryingly. "The artificial gravity generators are offline as are most of the ships main systems. To make things worse, I only have signals from systems in the ship that where located in the rear half of the Dawn!"

"Are you saying that the Dawn was…" he began but was cut off by Cortana.

"Sliced in half when the blast wave from Halo closed the slipspace rupture? Yes."

Chief sighed. "Where are we now? I mean we must be on a planet if there is still atmosphere and a perfect level of gravity right?"

"I would assume so but at the moment all exterior cameras and scanners are down. Yank me and we'll go outside and find out." Cortana said.

Chief pulled the AI chip out of the terminal and put it into his helmet. He then proceeded to the hanger bay. The door he came through was jammed and would have taken hours for any normal marine or ODST to bypass but it was just an annoyance for a Spartan. Chief pulled the door back to revel the hanger bay and was surprised to find that the remaining part of the Dawn was perfectly level. Even more shocking was the sight of a planet that had lush plant life but was strikingly similar to earth.

"Cortana, are there any usable vehicles left in the hanger bay?" Chief asked.

"Well some that could be repaired easily but as of the moment no" Cortana responded.

"We may not have time to do repairs, there could be Covenant forces in the area" Chief said.

"Ok I managed to get one of the exterior cameras online but I don't think it is functioning correctly." Cortana said.

"Why?" Chief asked.

"It is picking up hundreds of motion signatures outside and some sort of outpost resembling that of a 21st century radio station nearby." Cortana said.

"Well let's have a look at these motion sigs shall we" Chief said as he walked over to the open hanger doors and looked down. What he saw was a relief as there were tones of humans at the base of the dawn. But something was off about them, he only heard loud groaning from them and they all seemed to just be pressing themselves against the base of the ship. "Cortana, these people look human but their behavior is odd. What is going on with them?" Chief asked.

"I don't think that those creatures are human Chief or at least they aren't anymore." Cortana said worryingly.

"Flood?" Chief asked with surprise.

"If they are Flood then they are a wildly new strain. Those creatures have a base body structure of a human but they appear to have experienced rapped tissue decay, I would say at the same rate as if they were dead! To add to the list of weird things about these creatures, they aren't giving off any body heat at all!" Cortana sounded more and more shocked as she rambled on.

"How are they even alive?" Chief asked.

"Well we could more effectively study them in the Dawn's medical bay. As I recall it was located in the rear of the ship. It has enhanced scanners and was retrofitted to protect against flood outbreaks before we left earth." Cortana suggested

"What about the radio outpost?" Chief asked. "I mean obviously the scanner worked fine so there must be something out there."

"I would advise against going outside until we know what these creatures are capable of." Cortana said.

"Alright, I'll get a test subject" Chief said

Before Cortana could say anything Chief jumped down to the ground catching the attention of several creatures. Where most species that saw a nearly 7-foot-tall super soldier would have been in awe these creatures just held their arms out in front of them and slowly approached Chief, groaning in a hungry way every step. Chief told them to stop but they didn't even seem to hear it. One finally got close enough to bite Chief but when it tried it got its head knocked off with a well-placed hook punch. Another tried the same thing but chief kicked right through its torso. This one however, didn't die but kept trying to bite and scratch Chief.

"Cortana, how it that thing not dead!" Chief screamed

"I have no idea!" Cortana said in a shocked manner.

The creature Chief kicked had been despised and completely demobilized but it was still groaning and moving its head. Chief put it out of its misery by stepping on its head. Another creature attacked Chief from behind but met the same fate as the first creature had. Chief quickly learned that the only way to completely kill a creature was with a blow to the head or temple area. Chief fought the creatures for over an hour killing almost all of them around the Dawn and even some that just happened to be near it. Cortana kept a carful count of every single one that Chief killed and scanned them just before he did. By the time the Dawn was completely clear of the creatures Chief had killed eight hundred fifty-two of them. Chief hadn't enjoyed killing any of them but they all either tried to attack him or were attempting to do damage to the Dawn. Chief returned to the Dawn victorious and with a creature that he had managed to capture by grabbing its neck from behind.

…

In the medical bay the captured creature was restrained on a medical table intended to hold a person that was just infected by the flood. Cortana was conducting some high powered scans so Chief was outside watching. Cortana finally finished and gave Chief the bad news.

"Chief, the only good new I have is that we are not dealing with the flood. Outside of that, we may have just discovered a new threat. This creature is essentially a reanimated corpse; the only reason it's alive is because of an extremely potent virus that has basically half destroyed half high jacked its brain. It can feel no pain and cannot die from blood loss so the only way to pertinently kill one of these things is to destroy or at least heavily damage the brain. Even worse is that there seems to be an internal code written in the DNA of the virus. It's almost like a prime directive. It forces the victim to go around and infect other life forms by triggering an ancient reflex of the human brain that would force the victim to eat or attack any animal that could be food. But it especially targets other humans. However, after our excursion outside I identified a foreran agent in the air supply that your suit had been filtering out. After some research I discovered that it was an airborne strain of the virus and that it could in theory infect any person with the virus. The virus only becomes active after death though, no living being can become one of these creatures, they would have to die first. A bite or scratch from a creature could kill a normal human though"

Chief was speechless, he had fought his way through hell and back and had seen some crazy stuff in that time but he had never thought that he would have to fight the literal undead!

"Cortana about how long has it been since this infection started" Chief said with a kind of tone that Cortana hadn't ever heard him use. A tone that had just a hint of fear in it.

"Based on the level of decay in those creatures outside, I would say at least a decade ago." Cortana responded

Chief regained his composer and simply said "We need to get to that radio station and get a message to any ships in the area telling them to quarantine this planet."

"Agreed" Cortana said. "But I wouldn't chance fighting these things hand to hand again, get to the backup armory and get ready for war and then repair a vehicle so that we don't have to fight these things on foot." Cortana said

Chief followed her instructions to the "T". He got to the armory and picked out a battle rifle, a Spartan laser, and a magnum pistol. After that he went and repaired a warthog and checked the ammo on its turret. He also loaded a weapons create into the warthog just in case. They left the Dawn at about 3:00 in the afternoon. Chief ran over or shot any creatures he saw without hesitation.

…

After a considerable amount of driving they made it to the Radio station at about 6:30 pm. Chief had come prepared for a fight with the Covenant so it was a massacre for the creatures. The warthog smashed through the chain linked fence easily and landed in the middle of a massive herd of the creatures. Chief hopped on the turret and blasted every single member of the undead in sight. The massacre had gone on no longer than five minutes before Chief had cleared out every single creature in the entire outpost.

"Well that was impressive, even for you" Cortana said

"They didn't even try to take cover, they came to me and I took advantage of the free shots" Chief said coldly

"Ok well, this tech is primitive but if there are still satellites I should be able to get a message to any UNSC, Elite, or Covenant vessels in the area. But first you need to find a master computer, it will have access to most if not all of the systems here. I would imagine that the backup generators will also need to be turned on since there is no power." Cortana said

"Right" Chief said.

After about an hour of repairing and turning on generators Chief located the master computer and uploaded Cortana into the system.

"Satellite connection established" Cortana said triumphantly. "Ok now let's…" she paused. "Chief! We have a huge problem!"

"What is it?" Chief asked.

"We didn't crash on some distant planet in the middle of nowhere, we're on earth!" Cortana said


	2. New allies

**(Thankyou everyone for the support last chapter, I definitely plan on continuing this story for as long as I can and will try to add new chapters regularly. Please leave reviews, good or bad they help)**

**(I do not own Halo or The Walking Dead. That goes for last chapter too.)**

**A brief recap of last chapter:**

Chief and Cortana got what was left of the Forward unto Dawn back up and running.

The two discovered the walkers **(Although they didn't know what to call them, Sorry I will fix that this chapter)** and they figured out how to kill them.

Chief and Cortana raided a radio outpost and Cortana discovered that they were on Earth!

…

"We're on Earth!" Chief screamed. "Where are the marines! The ODSTs! They would have sent a rescue crew out to the crash site by now!"

"Chief, I am patched into what I believe is a 21st century Russian spy satellite and I am not seeing any UNSC bases on this continent. There isn't even a trace of the biggest military bases from our time! Chief, I think that Halo somehow sent us back in time or to another reality altogether! If there is anything else from our time out there, it is probably Covenant." Cortana said

"Is there any way to contact the UNSC, or even the Covenant!" Chief asked

"I could set a distress beacon on a loop but I doubt there will be anybody to hear it." Cortana said worryingly "In the mean time I am bringing up what is left of the Internet and attempting to find details pertaining to the initial outbreak of this virus."

"Can you do it from the Dawn?" Chief asked

"I could relay a signal through this outpost to the Satellites from the Dawn, so yes" Cortana said.

"Good" Chief said as he put Cortana back into his helmet.

Outside a few stray creatures had wandered through the hole in the fence that Chief made with the warthog. Chief easily dropped them all with his battle rifle and got back into the warthog. Before Chief started the engine though he realized that it would be night sooner that he could get back to the Dawn and didn't like the thought of driving through herds of the undead for three and a half hours at night.

"Cortana, are there any structures around here that we could use as shelter for the night? I don't want to stay here with the gap in the fence and I don't want to drive back at night either." Chief said.

"Well there is an old railroad station near hear but that would be overrun by now. A little further there is a boarding school that to my knowledge is pretty easily defendable." Cortana said

"I don't like the idea but the boarding school is our best choice for now." Chief said.

Cortana put the coordinates on Chief's HUD and they rode off into the sunset, mowing down any creature they saw along the way.

…

Ever since the raider's defeat it had been really quiet at Ericson's boarding school for troubled youth. Clementine had been bit and lost a leg and the loss of one of their best fighters was taking a toll on everyone. They hadn't done much since the rescue mission except repair and reinforce their walls as well as bury their dead.

"Another day of doing nothing." Violet said with a bit of disgust in her voice.

"Well there isn't that much to do Violet." Aasim said. "It's mostly just upkeep and food gathering. You know, like before Clem and AJ got here."

"That's what scares me Aasim, it's too much like before they arrived. And besides, Lily is still alive somewhere out there and she knows where Ericson is."

They heard Omar shout from the other side of the Courtyard. "Dinner is ready everyone!"

The sun had gone down about an hour ago. Everyone came to the table an Omar served dinner.

"Find anything out in the field today Louis?" Clementine asked.

"No, there has been nothing in that field for a week straight now and its worrying me. We might need to search for another hunting ground Clem, because at this rate we are going to be eating plants and fish for a while." Louis responded.

"Agreed, tomorrow you take Mary, AJ, and Ten up to the ridge line to see if there are any other good spots near hear." Clementine said.

"Probably wouldn't hurt to see wear that big herd from last week is too." Louis said.

"Yeah, I know we reinforced those walls but I wouldn't want to test them against that big of a herd." Clementine said.

"Clem, would the walls hold against that herd?" AJ asked.

"I don't want to know the answer to that question AJ, Aasim said there were hundreds of them the last time he saw them. But chances are that the gate wouldn't last as long as the walls." Clementine said with a bit of worry in her voice. "Louis, if the herd is still on this side of the ridge then try and direct them away from Ericson. The last thing we need right now is an army of walkers trying to knock our defenses down."

"Can do Clem." Louis said proudly.

…

Willy had never liked watch tower duty, especially since he had held that job for years. However, the simple fact remained that he had much better night vision than even Clementine. Most of the time he would just throw rocks at passing walkers to veer them away from Ericson. He also had a swallow that was particularly fond of him but that was probably due to the fact that Willy fed it regularly. Tonight had been a little different than the last couple. Normally he would wake up around 6:30ish in the afternoon, eat dinner/breakfast with the group, take the dusk watch, relax while Violet or Aasim took the early to midnight shift, cover the dawn watch, and finally hit the hay in the early morning. But tonight he had gotten stuck with all three shifts because Violet had been with Mary getting work done on her eye, or at least where it had been, and Aasim had been hunting with Louis all day. Needless to say they were both pretty wiped out. It was about 8:00 pm when Willy saw his swallow friend again and let it eat some scraps from dinner out of his hand.

"Guess it's just us tonight pal. Violet and Aasim owe me big for this one, don't they little guy." Willy said in a laughing way.

The swallow just chirped as it looked at Willy and turned its head. It suddenly flew off without warning. That was out of the ordinary because normally it would stay with Willy for an hour or two after eating, and when it did leave it would hop a few times and chirp before it flew away. Willy instantly knew something was up. He scanned the near tree line for walkers but didn't find any. He then took out his binoculars and watched the forest ahead of him. Soon he saw a light peek through the tree line for just a second. But that second was all he needed to confirm his suspicion.

"There's someone in the forest heading this way and fast!" He yelled at the top of his lungs to the rest of the group in the courtyard.

…

"Are you sure it is a good idea to drive up to this place with your high beams on?" Cortana asked.

Chief simply said, "I am not expecting much if any resistance where we're going. If there is someone there and they want a fight, then they'll have one."

Chief was less than a hundred yards away from the coordinates on his HUD when the boarding school came into sight. It had on orange glow on its interior walls so there had to have been a fire going inside the courtyard, meaning that the place was inhabited by survivors. Chief quickly realized that some sections of the wall had been rebuilt and that the whole wall had been reinforced. He turned off his high beams to hide how close he was to the school but he knew that the engine sounds had definitely alerted its residents to his presence. He parked the warthog about ten yards from the entrance. When he got out of the warthog he saw a dead body chained to a tree with a sign reading "DON'T F*** WITH US!"

"That sends a pretty clear message." Cortana said.

"Let's hope that they're more friendly with us." Chief said. "For their sake."

Chief approached the gate and noticed that it was guarded by a steel chain and a lock. Rather than just breaking the chain, Chief decided to try diplomacy first.

"Hello, I'm friendly and don't mean anyone any harm. I only want a place to stay the night and store my vehicle for the same length of time."

His voice seemed to be almost mechanical to Clem who was behind a table with Marlon's bow in hand. Even though she had lost a leg, she could still shoot incredibly well.

Chief was starting to get perturbed. "Okay, Cortana where are they hiding?"

"There are three behind those turned over tables, two behind that concrete pillar, two behind the benches near the fire place, one on the wall, and one in the watch tower. Funny, all of them seem to be juveniles" Cortana said.

"Listen, I know where you all are and I only want a place to stay the night."

Louis took a chance and stood up pointing a pistol at the gate even though it only had three rounds. "Okay mister you just…" Louis paused at the sight of a nine-foot-tall man in what looked like body armor. This guy held an assault rifle and had what looked like a rocket launcher on his back. To add to all of this his visor was glowing and on the sides of his helmet were what looked like flashlights. His armor covered all the major organs and arteries in his body, or at least all that Mary had told him about, and still maintained a level of intimidation that he could respect. Also on This man's side was an odd looking pistol, much bigger that his own so Louis assumed it fired a much bigger bullet. HE had several frag grenades strapped to his belt as well as what seemed like places for extra magazines.

"Well…y-your armed to the teeth, aren't you?" Louis said in a cowardly way.

"You have no idea kid." Chief said sarcastically.

"H-how do I know that I can trust you?" Louis said in the same way.

"Kid, look at what I'm carrying. If I was going to harm you or your friends, you would all be dead by now. That being said, this gun is more that capable of shooting through tables, benches, concrete pillars, brick walls, and wooden watch towers."

Having just revealed their own hiding spots to them, the Ericson kids stood up to see this guy. Clementine and Mary stood up from behind the tables, Omar and Aasim got up from behind the benches, AJ and Tennessee stood up from behind the concrete pillar, Willy got down from the watch tower, and Violet got down from the wall. They were all as equally taken back as Louis. The kids let Chief in and parked the warthog inside the gate. They were all in awe of the warthog's turret.

"Who are you?" AJ finally asked.

"I am UNSC Spartan Sierra 117, my rank is Master Chief Petty Officer. But most people call me Chief." The Master Chief said.

"Wait what is the UNSC and what's a Spartan?" Willy asked.

"UNSC stands for United Nations Space Command. It is basically the military 500 years from now. As for what a Spartan is, they are genetically and cyberneticly enhanced super soldiers designed to single handedly turn the tide of any fight in favor of the UNSC."

"Wait, how do you know about this UNSC if it's from 500 years in the future?" Violet asked.

"My ship, the UNSC Forward unto Dawn, got cut in half during a battle and was somehow sent back in time. Only those creatures outside were never part of our history. So either I am in a different universe altogether or someone has changed history for the worse." Chief answered.

"Wait, you mean that you're from the future and that the walkers were never supposed to exist?" Mary asked.

"Yes." Chief said. "Also 'walkers' is a much better name than creature or the undead, which is what I have been calling them for the last day and a half."

"Who could have changed history then?" Clementine asked.

"I don't know. I made it here under some pretty extraordinary circumstances. So the chances of anyone else from my time let alone being here, but arriving earlier than I did are incredibly slim" Chief said.

"You said you ship was in a battle and that it got cut in half, who were you fighting and what happened to the other half of your ship?" Louis asked.

"Well, that's a long story. To start, the earliest known alien species in the universe was the Precursors, they went from galaxy to galaxy nurturing new species and eventually passing on their belief system called the mantle of responsibility to one race that they deemed worthy. The mantle of responsibility meant that the species who held it had power and control over all other species, but in tern the species that held it was responsible for the wellbeing and care of all other species. Eventually the Precursors came to our galaxy and fostered many species, but two stood out more than any other. Humanity and the Forerunners. Eventually the Precursors made the decision to pass the mantle of responsibility to Humanity. However, the Forerunners thought that they should have inherited the mantle of responsibility and they declared war on the Precursors and Humanity. Humanity put up a good fight but eventually succumb to the Forerunners, but wasn't entirely destroyed. The poor peaceful Precursors though, weren't so lucky. They were totally unprepared for war. For Billions of Billions of years, they had focused on creating peaceful galaxies where war wasn't a thing. As a result, they barely knew how to fight anymore and were completely destroyed by the Forerunners.

"Sounds like these Forerunners, were some really bad news. But your here so humanity must have avenged the Precursors and destroyed the Forerunners right?" Louis asked.

"Well yes and no. You see before the Precursors were totally extinct, some of them converted themselves into powdered form, hoping to be revived someday by Humanity or other Precursors. But the Forerunners got their hands on the powder first and not knowing what it was, they conducted so many tests on it that it corrupted and rematerialized into the worst enemy ever known to the galaxy, the flood. They were parasitic life forms, their only goal was to feed on sentient life by infecting it and turning it into more flood, not unlike those walkers outside. But the difference between the walkers and the flood is that the flood got smarter with every person that they infected. Slowly but surely taking over entire solar systems at a time. They formed Graveminds, giant monsters that were made of once living people. The Graveminds were as smart as super computers and communicated with smaller flood forms via telepathy. The newly recovered Humanity was completely outmatched and the flood consumed their entire territory forcing the remaining humans into Forerunner space. The Forerunners destroyed humanity again but they had spent their resources on the wrong foe. The Forerunners tried a thousand different plans to stop the flood but they all failed. Eventually the Forerunners were faced with two options. Be consumed be the flood or eradicate all life in the galaxy so that the flood would starve. They chose the latter and built seven planet sized rings called Halos. They fired a pulse that killed all life in existence including the Forerunners. But thanks to a Forerunner who hated what the rest of her kind had done, she secretly preserved Humanity and several other species so that they could repopulate on new worlds after the Halos fired. By the time the rest of the Forerunners found out, it was too late. The Halos fired and destroyed all life in existence including the flood." Chief continued.

"Wow, so you mean Earth isn't actually the home planet of humanity? And that Forerunners saved us in the end" Ten asked.

"Yes. But that's only half the story. After the Halos fired, humanity repopulated and became a space faring race again. The Forerunner who sympathized with humanity created robots called monitors to guard the Halos from any surviving flood and to help humanity attain what was rightfully ours." Chief said

"The Mantle of Responsibility!" Willy yelled with excitement.

"Right kid. But some of the other species that the Forerunners had preserved found the Halos first. How they did it, I don't want to know. But somehow they got it in their heads that the Forerunners were Gods and that they had become Gods by activating the Halos which sent them on the 'Great Journey.' But the Forerunner who helped humanity did us one last favor, she made sure only humans could activate the Halos. So they set out to find a way to activate the Halos, enslaving any other race they came across and forcing them to join their Covenant. But when they discovered the vastly technologically inferior humanity, they wrongly assumed that we were descendants of the Forerunners and that we had been left behind from the original great journey because we were heretics. So they set out to destroy us completely, like what the Forerunners did to the Precursors. They got close until we discovered the truth about one of the Halos from its Monitor. Using this information, we managed to get one of the most powerful species in the covenant to defect and help us win the war. The Covenant however, discovered a way to activate all the Halos at once. Somewhere along the way the flood had returned and were also trying to stop the Covenant too but for their own evil reasons. Eventually we all joined forces to stop the Covenant and succeeded but the flood was still alive and the only way to destroy them was to detonate one of the Halos. My AI, one of the warriors of the defected Covenant and myself took the Forward unto Dawn and active a Halo destroying the flood for good. But while we were escaping, my half of the Dawn was caught in Halo's blast wave and we ended up here. The other half must have made it back to my Earth though.

"So where is your half of the ship? I mean if it fell from the atmosphere we would have seen in." Violet said

"That's the strange thing, it is about 140 miles NE of here. Over that ridge. But when my AI and I came to, we were perfectly level and set down neatly on the ground." Chief said.

"Umm…You wouldn't have happened to have seen a very large herd of walkers headed that way would you?" Louis Asked.

"You mean one with several hundred walkers in a bad mood? Yeah they attacked the Dawn and I wasted them all. Cortana what was the exact kill count again?" Chief said.

Before any of the kids could say something Chief pulled a chip out of the back of his helmet and a Blue woman appeared and said; "Hello, I am UNSC AI Cortana, I am Chief's AI partner. We have fought together for almost three years now. Anyways the exact number of walkers Chief killed was eight hundred and fifty-two. I don't mean to brag but he killed them all with melee combat, but then again that's typical for a Spartan." Cortana said.

The kids were stunned at the AI and at the footage of Chief massacring the walkers. After the initial shock was gone, Clementine said; "Well I don't think we introduced ourselves properly. I'm…" She was cut off by Cortana.

"Clementine Amy Nira, sorry but while Chief was telling stories I was familiarizing myself with all of your historical files. The only person here I don't have a file on is this young man." Cortana pointed to AJ.

Clementine was stunned, she had never known her middle or last name. Then all of a sudden this AI is able to tell her things about herself that Clem might have spent an eternity trying to remember. She had also pretty much confirmed Clem's theory that if the apocalypse hadn't happened then Alvin and Rebecca might never have had AJ.

"I'm Alvin Junior." AJ said.

"His parents' names were Alvin and Rebecca. Sorry but I never knew their last name." Clem said.

"Well taking his facial features into account and cross-referencing them with known married couples with the first names of Alvin and Rebecca, I think these are his parents." Cortana said as she displayed the pictures of two people that no person in the room could recognize except Clementine.

"That's them, that's Alvin and Rebecca!" Clem was almost in tears.

AJ was ecstatic to finally see his parents. He had known for a long time that Clementine wasn't his mother but he was still shocked.

"I guess that would make him Alvin Jr. Persilo." Cortana said as she displayed their last names under the picture.

Clementine noticed that everyone else had either gone to bed or were talking to Chief outside. She still couldn't believe the knowledge that this Cortana had. It all seemed so easily for her to recall, like she had always known it. She remembered that Cortana was an AI from 500 years in the future.

"Cortana, I have a question." Clem said as the AI looked away from AJ and toward her. "What would have happened to all of us if the apocalypse had never started?"

"Well, you would have gone on to become one of the most prestigious Criminal Defense Attorneys in the United States. One of your most successful cases would have been clearing the name of Lee Everett, a man who had spent nearly 40 years in prison for allegedly killing a state senator when in reality the guy died from a drug overdose. Ironically you would marry and go to have four kids with Louis. By the way he would be a world renown detective for his incredible knack at solving impossible murder cases. Violet would be a college professor who taught theoretical physics. Ten would be a professional soccer player and would help the United States team win the world cup three times in a row. Omar would go on to become an iron chef. Willy would be a talk show host for Fox news. Mary would receive the Nobel Prize for curing AIDs. Aasim would become an Army Ranger and earn the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of an entire marine unit in Syria. But there is no record of AJ anywhere." Cortana said. "However, that's not to say that he never existed."

"Thank you Cortana, tomorrow will you guys take off?" Clementine said half in tears. AJ was asleep on a bench and only Louis and Violet were talking to Chief now.

"Probably, we don't want to be a burden for you guys. Besides, it's a pretty short drive to the Dawn from here and Chief wants to get to the bottom of this outbreak ASAP. He said something on the way here about making the person responsible for it wish they were never born." Cortana said

"Well come back if you ever need anything, we would love to have you guys." Clementine said as she regained her composure.

…

"You had one job Lily! One dammed job!" A figure in a shady corner said.

"Don't think about getting mad at me! There were unforeseen problems and they had a new leader whose tactics were borderline insane!" Lily screamed.

"Lily, just admit that you messed up. It will make this run a hell of a lot smoother." Jackson said.

"Messed up is one way to put it! Lost a boat full of resources and soldiers to a pack of kids is another!" The figure yelled

"Boss, my agency has been studying this Clementine for a while now and I can tell you that Lilies defeat was absolutely nothing out of ordinary. Let me ask you something, do you remember William Carver?" Jackson asked in a very calm and collected manner.

The figure in the corner stopped as did Lily. "You mean to tell me that the same person who got my brother killed is now leading this group?" The figure asked

"Yes, and she has a boy in her care named Alvin Jr." Jackson said

"Lily, you're incompetent as hell but at the moment you're the only person who has any first-hand experience of this girl's tactics. Now I am going to give you one chance to redeem yourself, you bring me my nephew and the hag that killed my brother alive!" The figure said.

"Understood sir, I won't fail again." Lily said

"You had better not! Or it's the last mistake you will EVER make!"


	3. The coming army

**(Hey everyone, so I am really sorry that last chapter was kind of wordy, most of it was either tying a bow on WD game season 4 or leading into Chpt 3. This will be a Fun one. Please leave reviews, good or bad, they help.)**

**(I do not own Halo or the Walking Dead.)**

**A BRIEF recap of last chapter:**

Chief and Cortana met the Ericson crew after a bit of a tense moment.

Chief explained what the UNSC and Spartans were.

Chief told the story of his universe while Cortana memorized the Identities of the Ericson Crew except for AJ.

Cortana told Clementine what all the Ericson kids would have done normally.

Lily was re-tasked with capturing Clem and AJ.

…

It was early in the morning but none of the Ericson kids would have missed Chief and Cortana leaving for the world. Chief gave Clementine a com-link so that if they ever needed anything than they could reach Cortana.

"Will you come back?" Ten asked Chief.

"I don't know. But if you ever need me than I'm just a com-link away." Chief said as he smiled in his helmet.

Chief got into the driver seat of the warthog and waved as he drove off. Chief had wanted to mention the fact that the Dawn could fabricate combat prosthetics to Clementine and Violet but also didn't want to reveal the Dawn's exact location either. Right now he had one thing on his mind, find the person responsible for the outbreak and make them pay.

…

Chief had been driving for just over 45 minutes when Cortana spoke up; "Chief there is some kind of phantom signal in the area. I can't hack it but I can tell it's heavily encrypted."

"What direction is it coming from?" Chief asked.

"Roughly South West." Cortana said

"Are you sure, that's the complete opposite direction that we want to be going in." Chief said.

"I'm positive Chief, once we get within a few miles I should be able to hack the signal." Cortana said. "Wait, now it's gone!"

"What do you mean it's gone?" Chief said

"I mean one minute it was there and the next it wasn't. I think it might have been a short coded communication. Whatever was being said must have been sensitive to someone though, because that was one tough signal to locate." Cortana said.

"Could it pertain to our new friends?" Chief asked.

"Possibly, again anything could have been said and I would be none the wiser." Cortana said.

"Well we still have a good amount of fuel left, let's check it out." Chief decided.

…

Jackson walked into his tent and over to a table. He picked up a small badge in the shape of an octagon. It had red and white markings on it in the shapes of triangles.

"This is agent Black Omen to Castle, our assets are moving to apprehend primary and secondary targets. Requesting further instructions, over." Jackson whispered.

"This is Castle Black Omen; new instructions are to disregard secondary target. Move to apprehend primary target by any means necessary. How copy? Over." The badge said.

"Affirmative, however the asset has special interest in primary target. Requesting authorization to employ 'Longshot' over." Jackson said.

"Authorization to employ 'Longshot' granted. Castle over and out." The badge said as the communication ended.

Jackson put his badge back and walked outside the tent. He and the rest of Lilies' task force had camped next to a river that was now the only real obstacle between them and Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth. Jackson knew that his agency had been keeping a close eye on the girl who was now their leader. He shivered at the thought of anyone outsmarting William Carver let alone killing him. That event was almost a decade behind them now and his agency still looked at it as one of the greatest defeats in their history. Jackson knew his agency had something planned for this girl and possibly the child she had taken into her care, but he just couldn't put his finger on what. With everything Jackson had learned about Clementine Nira over the years, he had come to a few conclusions about her. The first was that she would take the moral high ground whenever possible which meant that she might not help his agency willingly. The second was that she was incredibly smart. Defeating Lily was not something that everyone could do, especially with how depraved of any morals she was. And killing William Carver was no small task either. This meant that any trick or deception that he or his agency used on her would eventually get found out. Between these two facts, he was unsure about what his hierarchs wanted with her. Normally his agency only recruited new members if they agreed with what its overall goal was and the methods they used to achieve that goal. To Jackson, it seemed highly unlikely that she would agree with either. Still, his agency had its ways.

"Morning Jackson." One of Lily's men said. "Excited for some revenge?" He asked eagerly.

"I don't know if you could say excited Joe. I am ready to avenge our fallen comrades, but killing children still doesn't sit well with me." Jackson said.

"Oh don't beat yourself up pal, those 'kids' wouldn't hesitate to kill you or me if they got the chance. Besides they made their choice when they sunk that ship." Joe said in a friendly way.

Jackson noticed that Joe had a rather heavy sniper rifle hung across his back.

"They absolutely have to pay for what they did to us Joe. There is no excuse for sinking an entire ship full of people and recourses, even if they were soldiers. However, you have to look at it from their point of view as well. To them, we started this whole thing by kidnapping their friends, then murdered several of them when they tried to fight back, and finally tried to take them all as soldiers to fight a war that wasn't their own." Jackson said.

"Yeah, well I guess there is some truth to that. Still, remember that one of those 'friends we kidnapped' was on that ship when it sunk. We may have made these kids what they are Jackson, but it doesn't change the fact that they're monsters." Joe said.

As Joe walked away, Jackson thought of how Lily had made Milly kill Sophia and what a shell of a human being Milly became after that. "Was it really their friend who died on that ship?" He asked himself under his breath.

Lily, had been up all night preparing and planning for the raid. She still had one day left before they were going to attack and she wanted to make it count. She had a substantially larger contingent of soldiers than the last time she had attacked Ericson. She was planning on better fortifications, faster response times, and a very well-armed band of kids since the boat had sunk in relatively shallow water and there were plenty of guns and ammunition on it. Her mood could have been described as a work fever but she was desperate to get revenge on Clementine and redeem her social status in her community.

"Have the scouts returned yet?" Lily asked one of the mercenaries in the room.

"No, but last I heard, they were headed NE to a good spot on the ridge to spy." The mercenary responded.

"Let me know the second that they get back, we can't leave anything to chance with Clementine. I want to know about anything and everything that she has on her side." Lily said in a scheming way.

…

Chief had followed the ruff direction of the phantom signal for about a half an hour when Cortana detected a large camp up ahead. After parking the warthog, Chief approached the camp on foot. He had swapped his Spartan laser out for a silenced SMG and grabbed an active camo module from the weapons crate in the warthog. Once he got close to the encampment, Chief activated the active camo.

"Be careful, we don't have a ton of time before the active camo fails." Cortana said.

"We'll be in and out before they ever know we were here." Chief said reassuringly.

Chief made his way to the probable source of the phantom signal and ended up in Lily's tent as she was studying her forces expected strengths and weaknesses. Chief secured his com so there wouldn't be a sound when he spoke.

"Cortana, who is this women?" Chief asked.

"Lily Backer, normally she would have been the leader of a very dangerous gang and Louis would arrest her for the murder of 14 people, the attempted murder of 2 others, blackmail, four counts of kidnapping, and having connections to the worst human trafficking ring of the 21st century." Cortana said.

"So altogether a great person." Chief said sarcastically as he perused through the plans on Lily's desk.

"Cortana, how do you have access to civilian records? I thought you only contained knowledge of the UNSC database." Chief asked while looking at Lily.

"While I was linked to the Grave mind, the flood gained access to the civilian and historical databases on earth during their attack on Africa. I stopped them from getting the files by downloading them and destroying the original records. You can imagine how the Grave-mind reacted to that." Chief said.

Chief was about to leave when he looked at the main table and saw a paper with the title "Battle Plan". He looked closer and realized that the structure they were going to assault was the boarding school!

"Chief! These guys are going to launch an attack on those kids! We have to stop them!" Cortana said in horror.

"We aren't prepared to take on a camp this large. They have some pretty hefty weapons too. But we can destroy their extra munitions." Chief said as he left the tent and pulled a grenade off his belt.

He found their munitions tent and rolled the grenade past the guard. Before the guard could say or do anything though, he was blown to smithereens along with the rest of their extra guns and munitions. The whole camp was knocked off their feet by the resulting blast wave. Lily screamed something but nobody could hear her because their ears were ringing so loudly. Chief was prepared for the blast but his active camo wasn't. He reappeared in the middle of the camp, but ran so fast that hardly anybody realized that he was there let alone got a good look at him. Lily had seen him though, and as he was running she raised her pistol and shot at him. Chief counted three shots, one missed and two bounced off his shields. Lily started to chase him but soon realized how incredibly tall, big, and fast he was. Her amazement at how fast he got out of the camp got the better of her as she stopped perusing him.

"We have to warn those kids John; I don't think that the loss of their munitions will stop them or at least not for long." Cortana said as Chief got in the warthog.

"Why do you say that?" Chief asked while he started the engine and started driving away.

"In the records I have of Lily, she is one persistent and impatient dictator. I guess the good thing is that that quality was ultimately her downfall." Cortana said. "Louis couldn't prove she had done anything she was suspected of until she got impatient with one of her plans and rushed it, the plan failed due to poor planning and Louis capitalized on it." Cortana said.

"Okay, radio the kids and warn them. And tell them that we'll be there to assist as soon as we can." Chief said.

"Already on it." Cortana said.

Lily had recovered by now and had assessed the damage to her camp. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found out that she only lost three people and injuries had been minimal. She knew that their primary munitions tent was completely destroyed but she had taken the precaution of moving a substantial amount of its contents to a secondary tent outside the camp. She didn't know who that guy was but she knew that somehow he had infiltrated the camp and slipped past 85 people to destroy one tent. Lily didn't want to chance anything so she ordered that the attack take place as soon as possible so that if that guy was working for Clementine, they wouldn't have that much time to prepare for an attack.

…

Clementine was playing a game of chess against Louis when the com link that Chief had given her suddenly started buzzing. She didn't understand why it was doing that but when Louis pressed a button they heard Cortana say; "Sorry if this is a little unexpected but after Chief and I left we followed a phantom communication and discovered a very large encampment of mercenaries who had plans drawn out to attack you guys. Chief destroyed their munitions tent but having read their leader's record, I doubt that will stop them for long."

The two teenagers were shocked. But more than that, they both instantly knew who was leading that group.

"Cortana, was their leader's name Lily?" Louis asked.

"Y... yes, how did you know that?" Cortana asked.

"I'm sorry Cortana, we should have told you and Chief. Lily is the leader of a community south of here. She's brutal and tried to take us all as prisoners to fight a war they have with another settlement. We fought back but a lot of our friends died. Now Lily is back to finish the job and you two just walked right into the middle of it." Clementine said with worry in her voice.

"Don't worry about Chief and I, we've been in MUCH worse situations than this before. Right now we are enroot to the boarding school to provide as much assistance as possible before they attack." Cortana said.

"Wait how big was that camp Cortana." Louis asked.

"If you mean how many people should you expect Lily to bring? Then about 80 people, maybe more. Chief did kill some with the blast in the camp and I would imagine that there were injuries too." Cortana said.

"This isn't good at all, but any help would be appreciated Cortana. We'll see you when you get here." Clementine said.

The com link shut down after that as the two hurried to tell the others and prepare for an attack.

…

When Chief got to the school he noticed that everyone was hard at work gathering weapons, checking fortifications, and barricading the main building. He parked the warthog in the courtyard so that its turret was parallel to the gate and the main body of the truck was in the way of snipers trying to get a clean shot into the courtyard.

"Chief, your back!" Willy said.

"I am, but I wish it was under better circumstances." Chief said as he removed Cortana's chip from his helmet. He placed it down on the main table inside the building and Cortana appeared over it.

"Work with them to maximize the barricades effectiveness. I am going to go see what they have weapon wise." Chief said to Cortana. In front of Cortana stood AJ, Mary, and Ten. "Ok you three, do you have any cables or wires?" Cortana asked.

"Yes, some old steel towing cables." Mary said.

"Perfect, if you could go and get those then that would be great." Cortana said.

They went to get the cables as Cortana created a 3D map of the school. Meanwhile Chief was looking over the weapons that the kids had and wasn't impressed.

"You only have spears, a couple axes, and some pistols that don't have enough ammo for a Mexican standoff?" Chief said in annoyance.

"Well guns and bullets are hard to come across these days, especially when you live in the forest." Aasim said.

"In fact the only long range weapons we have are Clem's bow, your truck's turret, your assault rifle and pistol, and these pistols with hardly any ammo." Louis said.

"Well, I still don't have enough for everyone but there is a weapons crate in the warthog with enough guns and ammo to at least put up a fight." Chief said.

Louis, Aasim, and Violet dug through the crate and found a sniper rifle, two silenced SMGs, three Socom pistols with extended magazines and ani-peg lasers, a Saw heavy machine gun, a tactical shotgun, and what they thought was a rocket launcher.

"Chief, there are enough guns and ammo here to stop an army of walkers. And this rocket launcher will destroy any vehicle that Lily brings." Violet said.

"Yeah, except if anyone but me fires that 'rocket launcher' they are going to be in the same condition as whatever it hits." Chief said.

"What do you mean?" Aasim asked.

"That's not a rocket launcher, it's an M6 Grindell Nonlinear Rifle also known as the Spartan Laser. It takes time to charge a powerful laser beam and when it fires it has enough force to blowup a shielded fighter jet. And it has so much kick that only a Spartan can use it without hurting themselves." Chief explained.

"Oh, well then you better take it." Louis said as Chief traded his SMG for the Spartan Laser.

"You should pass the SMGs out to everyone who is going to fight at the front of the school. They are better at midrange and since they're silenced, they're users will be harder to spot. Give the Socom pistols to the younger ones since they're light on the kickback. Give someone who is staying next to the Gate the shotgun because it's better for close up targets. The sniper rifle should go to Clem and she should stay up in the main building because she's disabled. Give Omar the Saw because he is the only one with the muscle to handle the kick and the mussel rise." Chief told Louis.

"What about the turret?" Violet asked.

"It has armor plating so it might be a good spot for Mary but I don't want to expose anyone to sniper fire if we don't have to." Chief said. "We should only use it if the person at the gate with the shotgun gets hurt or too many of them storm the gate at once."

"Okay, but what if they get past the turret?" Aasim asked.

"We fall back into the main building and hope for the best." Chief said.

"Alright, so Aasim and I will take the SMGs, Violet you have the shotgun, AJ Willy and Ten get the Socoms, Clem gets the sniper rifle, Omar has the Saw, and Mary can use Chief's SMG until we need her as a medic or on the turret." Louis said.

"Yes, and I'll go and do as much damage to their force as I can." Chief said. "Ok let's pass out the weapons and the plan."

Inside they had made a home alone style trap by mounting the cables to the top banister and to a large metal strut that would swing down and give the person on the receiving end a really bad day. Cortana had assumed that Chief would need a sniper so she made sure one of the upstairs rooms had open windows rather than barricades. There were defensive positions on the stairs so that they could fall back inside the building if needed. Cortana also took fire into account and had Mary get several buckets of water on hand in case of Molotov cocktails. She then reviewed the 3D map and noticed where weak points were and made sure everyone knew about them. It had gotten late and the sun was setting when Chief saw lights off in the distance.

"Let the fight begin." Cortana said.


	4. A Leader's duty

**(Hey everyone, so far I have been trying to write a chapter a day but as I get closer to schools' start that is going to slow down. I intend to keep this story updated and publish new chapters often, but just not at the same rate I have been. Thanks for all the support. Please leave reviews, good or bad, they help.)**

**(I do not own Halo, the Walking Dead, or any other franchise I pull concepts or character from.)**

**A brief recap of last chapter:**

Chief and Cortana detected and followed a phantom communication which lead to Lily's camp.

Chief tried to slow an attack on the Ericson kids by destroying their munitions tent.

Lily made up her mind that she was going to attack sooner rather than later.

Chief armed and helped the kids fortify the school and plan a battle strategy.

Lily is enroot to Ericson with a small army.

…

"Lily, I get what the boss told us about grabbing their leader and his nephew. I don't have anything against that. But do we really haft to waste all those other kids?" Jackson asked from the passenger seat in their jeep.

"Sorry for answering a question with a question, but you are always the calm cold calculated one. Why're you now coming to the defense of the people who killed Milly, Yonatan, Gabi, and all the rest of them?" Lily asked.

"I've done a lot that I'm not proud of during my time with the agency but at least they could justify it. You only want those kids heads to regain your social status back home. I could get behind avenging our fallen comrades but when killing children becomes just another way to get power, that's where I draw the line Lily. And besides, with what you did to Milly by making her kill her own sister, she was probably better off as a corpse." Jackson said.

"So what if she was, Sophia brought us nothing but trouble and I only want to make these kids pay for killing a lot of good people." Lily said as they got closer to the boarding school. Jackson sighed knowing that he couldn't save the other kids, he only wished someone else could. They had started parking in front of the school when they realized that only one person was in sight. The green armored giant from before.

"You killed three good people. But right now I only want those kids so step aside and we'll spare your life." Lily said.

Chief didn't move. He kept his position just outside the gates.

"This is you're only warning!" Lily yelled.

"Those kids aren't here, I warned them that you were coming and they took off into the woods. But if you all are edging for a fight, then I will be happy to oblige." Chief responded coldly.

"Bullshit, those windows are boarded up and the courtyard is ready for a fight. They're in there and I've run out of patients. Waste this idiot everyone!" Lily called. But as everyone raised their guns Chief had already started firing. Lily watched as four mercenaries' heads exploded from a very high caliber round before anyone got a shot off at this guy.

Lily and Jackson ducked to avoid their comrades fate as Chief finished off the front line. Lily shot under the car at Chief's foot but it didn't do a thing!

"How the hell is that guy still walking!" She yelled.

Just then a different gun fired and took the head of another mercenary off who had been well hidden behind a truck. The shot came from one of the upstairs rooms and was obviously an incredibly high caliber as it had gone straight through the truck's engine and out the other side with enough remaining force to remove someone's head completely.

"Sniper!" Jackson called out.

Chief had gone around to flank the mercenaries but ran into a man carrying a rocket launcher. However fast Chief was he couldn't have stopped someone who was obviously waiting for him. Chief's shields tanked most of the explosion but he was still sent flying through the gate. Violet had been just to the side of the gates when they came off their hinges as Chief flew through them. Chief impacted the ground hard leaving a small crater in the concrete but to Lily's amazement he got back up like nothing had happened. However, the gates were down, and a golden opportunity presented itself.

"Suppress the big guy and the sniper, charge that entrance!" Lily called out while shooting at Chief.

It was now that Aasim and Louis chose to reveal their presence as they popped out of cover and killed a couple mercenaries who had followed Lily's last order. Chief switched his battle rifle out for the Spartan laser and began charging it.

"That big guy has got to go if we want to get in this place!" Jackson yelled, though secretly he was smiling because of this guy's presence.

"How about we go around him!" Joe yelled from behind another car.

"Good thinking, Jackson stay here and keep them distracted. Joe, spot that sniper and radio who they are and where they are to me! Dean, Andy, Roe, Jack, Max, Lucas, Teagan, and Cory with me!" Lily called.

Just then Chief finished charging the Spartan laser and fired. The sound drowned out all the other gunshots around as it totally destroyed everything in its way. Lily and Jackson watched in horror as Max was hit directly by the beam and literally exploded.

"Dam!" Willy said in shock.

"So if ever there was a doubt that Chief and Cortana were from the future, it just blew up with that guy." Omar said.

Having been friends with Max, Joe shouted a curse at Chief and fired his sniper rifle hitting Chief directly in the head. The impact caught Chief off guard and along with giving him a good headache, it also dropped Chief's shields. Chief ducked into cover behind the warthog to let his shields regenerate.

"Kolby take Max's spot and book it around the wall!" Lily said.

The small band of mercenaries got to the wall just as Chief popped back out of cover again with newly recharged shields. Violet, having not fired a shot the entire time ran to the warthog and got on the turret. She started chewing any cover the mercenaries had to pieces and killed a good number of them who popped their heads up to see what was happening. Lily and her gang had found one of the walls weak points and hopped over it into the grave yard.

"Dang, they bury their dead. Maybe they're more civilized than we thought" Jack said sarcastically.

"Well look at this one." Roe said as she pointed to Minnie's headstone.

"Guess Milly got off that boat after all." Dean said.

Lily simply read all the names that were there. "Marlon, Brody, Minnie, Sophy, Michal, and James. Happy now?" She asked.

"Well, after we kill the rest of 'em, we should bury them here with them. After all, they did that for one of us." Kolby said.

"Let the dead bury the dead, we have a job to do." Lily said as she walked toward a boarded up window of the main building.

Lily had brought one brick of C4 with her which was a precious commodity these days. She placed in between two boards, backed up and shot it with her pistol. The blast shook the whole building and messed up one of Clem's shots.

"Dean, Andy, Roe, when Kolby and I give the signal you rush those stairs and shoot anything that moves. Jack, Cory, Lucas, Teagan, you guys go in and draw the fire of anyone in there. Kolby you and I are going to go around the building and hit them from another side." Lily said.

Just then Joe started calling Lily's name over the radio. "Lily, Lily, pickup!"

"What is it?" She asked

"That sniper is in the front most upstairs room on the left side of the building, whoever they are, they're dropping our people out here and fast." Joe called.

"Good work, pull everyone back a little. Lure them into a false sense of security." Lily said as she motioned for the attack to begin.

Lucas was the first person to try and run out of the breached room and into the hall way but got shot in the head from down the hall.

"That will teach them something!" Willy called out.

"Keep an eye on that room." Cortana said from her chip on the table.

"Trust me, anything that comes out won't be moving for long!" Omar yelled as he positioned himself behind a wall with the Saw.

Teagan started shooting blindly down the hallway as he covered Cory who ran across to a room closer down the hall. However, after Cory made it, Teagan stepped out into the hall way as Jack ran behind him to the same room.

After Jack made it, he looked back in horror to see Teagan riddled with holes and falling over dead.

"Anyone else feeling lucky!" Mary yelled.

Cory and Jack were scared out of their minds at the weapons these kids had.

"How on God's green earth did they get machine guns!" Cory asked.

"I think it has something to do with that guy who blew Max up!" Jack yelled.

Just then they heard a gunshot and a teenaged Girl scream; "Omar!"

Having taken a bullet to the back, Omar doubled over backwards. The Saw fell directly on his face knocking him out, but giving the appearance of death. Mary saw Lily grabbing AJ out of the corner of her eye but didn't have enough time to shoot her before she knocked AJ out and pulled him behind a wall. Ten tried to charge the wall but had to duck into cover to avoid being shot by another raider who was covering Lily. Mary grabbed Cortana's chip and ducked into cover. Willy didn't get as lucky though as a rifle bullet grazed his shoulder.

"This is Cortana to all remaining defenses. Omar is down, Willy and AJ are injured, and hostile troops have breached the building from the east and west wings! Requesting immediate backup!" Was the message that everyone heard over their com links, including Lily who had taken AJ's. "Who an earth is Cortana?" she thought. Upon hearing the message, Clem, Chief and Violet all ran to help.

Violet was about to enter the door when a flurry of bullets hit the main door from Cory and Jack's direction. Chief instead entered by ripping the door of the wall and using it as a shield for Violet. He shot Jack's leg to ribbons but couldn't finish him off before he and Cory returned to cover. Clem had also gotten down the stairs by now, even with crutches and had gotten to Mary and Cortana.

"Lily, we can't keep this up for long. We've taken too many casualties!" Jackson yelled over the walky talky.

Suddenly Lily had an idea. "Stop all of you, stop shooting! I have AJ and I'll kill him if you don't." She said over the enemy com link.

Everyone inside the building stopped shooting, even Chief.

"Good, now I'm willing to pack up and leave if nobody fires another round and Clementine surrenders herself to me! Failure to comply with those terms will result in AJ getting a hole in his head!" Lily said coldly. "Clementine, you have till the count of ten to surrender and come over here."

Cortana secured the coms between her and Chief.

"How likely is it that she follows through on that?" Chief asked.

"I have no clue, but normally she was a scheming opportunist and with how badly beat her forces out there are, she is probably trying to look for a way to cut and run." Cortana said.

Lily started counting. "One…Two…Three!"

"I have to go." Clem said under her breath.

"No!" Mary said. "She's goanna kill AJ anyway, and then she'll kill you too!"

"Then just know that Chief is the best person to replace me." Clementine said as she got up and started walking.

Ten started crying as he saw Clem get up. Violet knew that Clem would go the ends of the earth to save AJ but this just seemed like suicide to her. Clem turned to Chief and said; "Take care of them for me." Chief nodded. Everyone else was thinking that Clem was committing suicide but Chief understood that it was a leader's job to do everything in their power to keep their people alive. Even if that meant losing theirs in the proses. Lily had reached eight when Clem walked around the corner where Lily was hiding. Lily paused a second when she noticed Clem had lost a leg. She then grabbed her knocking Clem off her crutches and pulled her behind the wall as Kolby pointed his gun at her to make sure she wouldn't move.

"Nobody shoot at anyone, and don't try to follow us!" Lily said as they followed cover to a knocked in window. Cory helped Jack through the hall way and after handing Jack off to Dean who was still outside Cory looked back and saluted Chief. Cory then sighed, hesitated and left.

Outside, Louis and Aasim had actually beaten the raiders back quite a bit. They hadn't heard the communication because of all the noise on the front lines. They thought they had won when all the remaining raiders suddenly started retreating and getting into their last operational vehicles. They didn't waste the opportunity to kill any raider that stuck out too much or went back for the gun or body of a fallen raider. When the last vehicles were well off in the woods they got up, gave each other a high five and yelled in victory. However, that mood soon changed when they came inside.

"We won! Those losers are running back to their community in shame!" Aasim yelled.

"Wait, why all the down faces? We won didn't we?" Louis asked.

"L…Lily killed Omar and took Clem and AJ" Ten said, still half in tears.

"W…wait, what? Chief, he can't be serious! This is all a joke or something, right?" Aasim asked.

Chief just hung his head down and said; "Sorry guys, but the kids telling the truth."

Louis fell to his knees, he felt like his entire world had just been flipped upside down. Violet tried to comfort him but could tell that Louis was devastated. Aasim just wandered over to Omar's body. Mary came over next to him.

"One minute, I think I just beat an army. The next, I find out my best friend's dead." Aasim said. He looked at Mary and asked; "H…how did he die?"

"Lily, shot him in the back. The gun he was carrying crushed his head. I tried to save him, but… his injuries were too severe." She said softly. "Aasim, even if the brain trauma hadn't killed him, the blood loss would have. Lily hit one of his major arties."

"He won't turn, will he?" Aasim asked in a tone that was getting angrier.

"No, he won't." Mary said.

"Aasim, I'm so sorry." Cortana said. "Chief and I have lost friends before but none that were as old as Omar. I can't imagine what you're going through right now."

"I'm fine Cortana. We should bury Omar and the raiders. All that noise will have attracted every walker within miles." Aasim said.

"Then let's get to work. There are a ton of bodies out there." Willy said.

"You all go bring the bodies inside the walls, I'll deal with any walkers that come this way." Chief said.

"Wait who made you leader? Just because Clem is gone doesn't mean that we can't appoint a new leader!" Aasim yelled.

"Aasim, don't your grief out on Chief. If it weren't for him, we would all be dead right now." Violet said.

"Yeah, and Clem made him leader before Lily took her!" Willy yelled at Aasim.

"Besides, who else would we make leader. Chief is obviously the most logical choice!" Violet said.

"Stop yelling at Aasim Violet! Omar just died and Aasim didn't even get to say goodbye to him. Don't you have a heart?" Mary yelled at Violet.

Everyone started bickering except Chief who was neutral and Louis who was still taking in the fact that he had lost a good friend, the person that he might have asked to marry him, and his possible future step son. Chief helped him to his feet and led him into another room.

"Are you ok?" Chief asked.

"Chief I… I was supposed to protect her! I promised her that I would protect her after she lost her leg and I failed!" Louis said, obviously still in shock.

"You didn't fail her; she chose to let Lily take her to save AJ." Chief explained.

"Listen kid, I'm not good with speeches but I know how it feels to lose someone that you really care about. I never really opened up to anyone in the UNSC except for Cortana, a couple childhood friends, and one sergeant that I served with. On our mission to stop the flood, that same sergeant trusted me to have his back. I let my guard down and he got killed. Point being that you didn't fail Clementine and you still have a chance to save her. But you need to be strong in order to do that. Don't make the same mistake that I did Louis." Chief said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Louis said as he seemed to calm down. "Let's go rejoin the others."

They walked into the main room and everyone was still arguing, even Cortana. Chief, having listened to the bickering long enough, shut the arguing down.

"Everyone stop!" Chief yelled.

Everyone paused and looked at Chief.

"I don't really care who the leader is but Clementine told me to take care of you all and whether I'm leader or not, I plan to do just that. Aasim you have every right to be angry but don't take it out on us. Violet, Aasim is grieving the loss of his best friend, try to respect that fact when you take a different point of view than his. Now those raiders bodies aren't going to bury themselves and if left to decay they're only going to attract walkers. We also need to properly bury Omar. Does anyone have a problem with that?" Chief asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Then let's get to work." Chief said.

…

AJ woke up in the most comfortable chair he had ever sat in. He was next to a fire pit in a strange room. It had a wooden desk in the back and bookshelves behind it. The side of the room that he had his back to was comprised of two large windows that weren't boarded up. The wall to his left had several shelves and had a door. He expected to be tied down but found himself completely free to move around. He searched the office and found a loaded revolver. Just as he was about to shoot the window the door opened to reveal a man wearing a green jacket and black jeans. He was coaction with brown hair and a short beard. AJ immediately pointed the gun at him and yelled; "Where am I?"

"You're in my office." The man said with a smile on his face.

"Who are you? And where are Clem, Chief and the others?" AJ asked.

"Well, my name is David Carver. I know this might come as a shock, but I'm your uncle." The man said.

AJ slowly lowered the gun.

"Resourceful kid, I thought that you wouldn't find my gun." David said.

"I learned how to find secret drawers from Clem, where is she?" AJ said in an ice cold tone.

"Well you see, we rescued you from a vile woman named Lily. I'm sure your acquainted." David said as AJ nodded. "During the shootout with Lily and her soldiers, one of my men accidently hit a young teenage girl. I'm sorry AJ, but she died and turned. We had to put her out of her misery. As for the others, we assume that Lily and her men killed them but we can't know for sure."

AJ dropped the gun and started crying. David hugged him and stayed there with AJ for a long time.

…

Chief had officially killed more walkers than there were raider bodies. The battle had brought every one of them in a thirty-mile radius to what was left of Ericson and they were still coming. One walker tried to bite Chief's neck from behind but Chief slammed his head back just in time killing the walker instantly. He brought his head back again to smash the face of another walker coming at him from the front. He punched straight out to his side and through the heads of two more of them. Another walker tried to take Chief from his other side but got its head side kicked off. Chief continued to defend Ericson while the kids and Cortana gave Omar a proper funeral. It had about ended when Cortana recited the burial rite of fallen UNSC soldiers.

"Rest now, fallen hero. Your battle is fought; your war is won. Cursed be the blade that struck you down and dammed be its wielder. May the angels set upon he who hath felled you and be as a merciless storm. May we never forget your sacrifice, nor your eternal courage. May our descendants look to you as an example of service. You who have given your life, serving those who did not know you. Because of you soldier, our future is brighter and our cause more noble. It is because of you soldier, that our enemy runs in terror. Because of you soldier, our lands may prosper and our causes flourish. May the powers on high sing of your courage. May you become as one of the stars to light our way in battle. May God Himself lead you through the gates of heaven and may your reward there be great. May you find eternal rest and peace."

All the others were in tears as Cortana recited the rite. After the Funeral, Violet asked Cortana about how the rite was invented.

"The burial right of Fallen Soldiers was actually written in 2030 during the third world war. It was adopted by the United States, Great Brittan, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Israel, and South Korea as the standard field burial right when a proper funeral couldn't be performed due to a lack of a priest or minister. That practice also came about around the same time." Cortana said.

**(Don't hate on me in the reviews for going a little Christian here, it's actually a military thing in a lot of countries and I'm just trying to keep it traditional.)**

Chief said over the com link. "Ok there are officially too many of these things out here. The gate is busted and there are multiple breaches in the main building. Everyone get to the warthog; we're going to the Forward unto Dawn. It's easier to defend and its location is still unknown to the raiders."

Everyone was shocked that Chief would ask them to leave the place they'd called home for so many years but they couldn't argue that there was no way to keep it safe now. They knew that if the raiders came back, it would be the end of them all. And they also knew that there would be an army of walkers there by morning and they wouldn't be able to launch a rescue mission at all. So while Chief held the walkers at bay, the kids packed what little they could and got situated on the warthog. Chief finally let the walkers break through so that he could hop in the driver seat.

"Hang on!" He yelled as the warthog shot threw the advancing horde of walkers, killing any that were in its way.

Chief put Cortana in his helmet. Louis sat in the passenger seat. Violet manned the turret but didn't fire to avoid attracting more walkers. Willy sat in between Chief and Louis but on the turret platform though still hanging his legs between the two. Mary and Aasim sat in the corners created by the blast shields on the side of the warthog. Ten sat in Maries lap. They had a long drive ahead of them and Chief wasn't wasting time getting there.

"I bet these kids will think the Dawn's crew quarters are something out of a mansion compared to what they've been living in." Cortana said. "I can't imagine what they all must be going through right now Chief, there were more headstones in that graveyard than just Omar's."

"They've lost people before; they'll get over it this time." Chief said almost mechanically.

"Chief remember, these are kids, Not Spartans. They can't just push all their feelings away like you can. Ten has already lost both of his sisters and losing Omar is going to scar Aasim for life. Losing your best and oldest friend at that young of an age does stuff to your mind John. And not good stuff." Cortana continued.

"It could scar them for life, or it could make them more resilient than you could ever imagine." Chief said. "It's Louis that I would be worried about."

"Yeah, he might stop functioning if we lose Clem and AJ for good." Cortana said.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Chief said.

"When we get to the Dawn, get those satellites wired into the Dawn's sensor system. Look for anything on the internet that would pertain to the outbreak. Also find the community that Lily and her troops are based in." Chief said.

"Launching a rescue operation are we?" Cortana asked.

"Not them, just me. I can take that compound alone. I refuse to put these kids through any more than they already have been." Chief said.

"That's why you're taking them to the Dawn aren't you. To protect them." Cortana said.

"I made a promise to keep them safe and that's what I'm going to do." Chief said. "Especially since they could now be the new first generation of the UNSC."

They rode the rest of the way in silence. It was about midnight when Louis saw what looked like some kind of space ship. However, it looked like there should be more, almost like it got sawed in half. Then Louis remembered what Chief had told them about coming to their earth. When they got into the hanger almost everyone was asleep except for Violet and Louis.

"Wow, this is your ship!" Violet asked.

"Half of it." Chief said sarcastically. "Besides this is the hanger bay, let's get you all to bed, it's been a really long day and a half.

They both nodded. Chief carried everyone else to a room after giving Violet and Louis each their own. Some of the officer's quarters had survived so that's where Chief put everyone. Surprisingly there were more than enough for everyone to have their own. Cortana uploaded into the ships systems and got everything back up and running except for a couple systems but the ship had power, security measures, full medical capabilities, and a fully functional hanger and elevator.

"The kids are all sound asleep, the hanger door is closed, I'm working on a functional prosthetic eye for Violet, exterior guns and missiles should be operational within the hour, satellites have been integrated into the sensor grid, heck even the air conditioning is working. What now?" Cortana asked.

"Now we get to work on a rescue plan." Chief said as he walked down the hall.


	5. Friendly Foes

**(Hey everyone, sorry it took so long to get this chapter out but school has been more time consuming than originally anticipated. Last chapter I got a ton of questions asking if Omar was still alive and what actually happened to Clem. So I just wanted to clear up any miss understandings right here and now. Omar is 100% dead and Clem is very much alive. Anyways, I understand that the number of remaining kids is growing quite thin so I have planned a couple additions. 'Not in this chapter.' As usual, please leave a review, good or bad, it helps.)**

**(I do not own Halo, TWD, or any other franchise that I may pull from.)**

**A brief recap of last chapter:**

Chief and the kids defended the school well and killed almost all of the raiders.

Lily lead a small band of raiders and breached the school.

Lily killed Omar and captured Clementine and AJ.

Chief became the new leader of the group and took the kids to the Dawn to protect them.

AJ met David Carver and now believes that he is his uncle and that all the others are dead.

…

AJ had slept in a really nice and comfortable bead that night but it hadn't eased the pain of losing Clementine and the others. In fact, he had been awake most of the night crying or sniffling. He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to any of them. Even worse was the thought that Clem had been shot, bled out with nobody who cared for her around, and turned into a walker which to her was a worse fate than even death itself. AJ felt so bad that Clem had received the worst death possible and right as she was about to be rescued too. He felt like his whole world had crashed down on him. However, deep down he had a problem accepting the fact that Chief could be killed.

When he woke up the next day he didn't want to get out of bed. David finally came and helped AJ pull himself together.

"AJ, I can only imagine what you're going through right now but can I tell you about a time when I lost someone I cared about?" David asked as AJ nodded.

"Well, my brother William was murdered about ten years ago and when I found out, I was as heartbroken as you are right now. I'm not going to lie; it was a dark time for me. I'm still not really the same as I was before that. I don't think anyone ever is after you lose someone that close. But you only get over a loss like that by accepting the fact that their gone and moving forward with your own life." David said.

With that AJ got up and sort of pulled himself together. He and David had a nice breakfast with a couple of David's friends and then David took AJ on a tour of the community. It was exponentially larger than Ericson, if AJ didn't know better he would have called it a city. The building in which he had stayed was near the center of the community and was sort of a town hall. AJ quickly deduced that his uncle was the leader of the community. They went through a large green house that also doubled as an aviary for some exotic birds that people had found and collected over the years. They had a place for livestock just outside where they farmed pigs, cows, chickens, rabbits, homing pigeons, and some deer. Next there was a large communal area which they had built next to a small creek. It was similar to how Clem had described parks in cities. Then there was the area where the community manufactured everything from food, to bullets, to car parts, to simple clothing. Next David showed him their solar farm and their wind turbines which gave the community more power than they could use in a day. Then there was the prison, which they didn't enter, the garage, the shooting range, the ware house, the residential area, and finally the walls. The walls were about 40 feet high and made of concrete with titanium reinforcements. They were about six feet thick and had guard rails all around the top as well as some watch towers. AJ could see for quite a long distance while walking on them.

"It took us five and a half years to build the walls. Some good people died during their construction so along with having some pride over building them, we also do our best to respect them as the people who we've lost over the years are buried under them." David said.

"Is Clem buried there?" AJ asked.

"Not yet, but when we've dug a grave for her, she will be." David said tenderly.

Just after that Jackson walked up to the pair.

"Ah! Perfect timing Jackson. I'd like you to meet AJ, my nephew. AJ this is Jackson Darrick. He's the reason that we knew where Lily was going when we rescued you." David said.

"Hi." AJ said.

"Hello AJ, I know that right now isn't a great time to ask about the people that you've just lost but my job here is to gather information on certain things. Right now I would like you to tell me as much as you can about a man in your former group called Chief, if you're willing." Jackson asked with some empathy in his voice.

"Why, did he do something bad?" AJ asked coldly.

"No, not Chief. I'm sure that he was a great person who did everything in his power to protect you and your group. However, there's someone else like him out there. That same person has hurt a lot my friends and may be helping some very bad people do some very bad things. I think there might be a connection between what Chief could do and what that other person can do." Jackson said.

"You mean there's another Spartan out there hurting people?" AJ asked in shock.

"If that's what you would call someone like Chief then I'm afraid so. But anything that you could tell me about Chief may help to stop that other Spartan." Jackson explained.

"Well, Chief was from the future. He fought for the United Nations Space Command and he said that Spartans were used to turn the tide of any kind of battle. They were fighting a bunch of alien races that wanted to destroy humanity called the covenant and the flood. Chief said they won but his ship was cut in half and he was teleported here." AJ said.

"Did he say when his ship crashed, or where?" Jackson asked.

AJ sensed that Jackson wanted to know something more than he was asking about.

"No." He said knowing that it was a complete lie.

"Did he say anything about an organization called Monarch?" Jackson asked.

"No, he never mentioned anything like it." AJ said.

"Okay, I think I have troubled you enough but if anything else comes to mind please tell me. It could potentially save a lot of lives." Jackson said.

David nodded to him as Jackson walked off.

"I don't like him." AJ said.

"Well, Jackson does try to play nice. That man is a mystery to me. His heart is soft but he's often too gullible. However, when the chips are down there's nobody who I'd rather have by my side. If he thinks that a cause is honorable then there's nothing on God's green earth that can stop him from caring it out." David said.

They walked around the walls talking for the rest of the morning, during which AJ really opened up to David and accepted him as his new guardian.

…

Clementine woke up in what could only be described as a medieval dungeon cell. The room was hot and damp and only had a small source of light that came from a barred opening at the top brick wall that Clem had her back against. Her hands were both cuffed to the wall and so was her one remaining ankle. The walls, roof, and floor were all made of the same black painted brick which added to the heat in the room. The door had no openings and was made completely of metal. It had a bulged where there should have been a handle which lead Clementine to believe that the door could only open from one side. She then assumed it would be guarded or at least have a door monitor outside. She felt so sick and disgusting that she honestly wished that Lily had shot her. Whatever Lily had drugged her with had worked because she had a hangover on steroids. Her hair was wet and all over her face.

"I should have taken Lee's advice about keeping my hair short." She thought. She just did nothing except try and find a comfortable position given her current state and feel miserable for hours. Once or twice nausea got the better of her and she threw up. However, she didn't have anything in her system the second time so it was just dry heaves. It had to have been late afternoon when a taller middle aged man entered the room. He wore a green jacket and a nice pair of blue jeans with what looked like a new leather belt. His hair and short beard were combed nicely. He wore a pair of nicely polished dress shoes and had familiar eyes and facial features but Clem couldn't remember anyone like this man. Nobody except maybe one.

"So Lily doesn't even have the decency to face me herself." Clem said as loud as she could but only amounting to a mumble.

"No, Lily doesn't have much decency at all. However, she reports to me." David said before Clem made an effort to raise her head and had a confused look on her face.

"Oh, you think that Lily runs this place don't you?" David asked. "Well sorry to burst your bubble but I do." He picked Clem's head up with his hand under her chin as she groaned. "Dang, Lily sure drugged you. You know normally I would get on her case for that detail but for you I'm making an exception." David said in an amused tone." You should have taken AJ back to Richmond Clem, Javier could've protected you, at least from me. But you made the stupidest decision of your life and became the leader of my neighboring community, lead them to victory over Lily, and killed a lot of good people in the process." David said.

"Who the hell are you? Where's AJ? And how do you know about Javier and Richmond?" Clem said as coldly as she could.

"Well, about the third question. I made a deal with an agency called Umbrella. They tell me things and in exchange I let them operate some fragile equipment here. And one of the things that they told me was how there was another community that wiped Richmond off the face of the earth. Don't be sad though, they put up a good fight. Apparently they had some super strong red dude on their side." David said.

Clem's heart fell when she thought of Javier, Kate, and Gabe in Richmond when it was destroyed.

"To answer your first two questions, my name is David Carver." He said as Clementine's eyes went wide open in shock. "I'm AJ's uncle and the brother of William Carver, you know the man you killed and whose son you stole all those years ago?" David asked.

"AJ's not William Carver's son." Clem struggled to say.

"Well, I guess the exact details of who his father was are still up in the air. But I can assure you that AJ has a great home now and he won't ever need to worry about food, shelter, or losing a person he cares about again. We spent the day talking you know, he really adored you. But you still killed my brother and put AJ threw unimaginable dangers. I can't forgive that. I would kill you but I guess I should return the favor of keeping AJ happy all this time. So I won't kill you, but the family and friends of all the people from this community that you killed might." He said as he motioned to the guard at the door who in turn motioned to someone in the hallway. Clem could hear tons of footsteps in the hallway. She knew that this was going to hurt.

…

Louis woke up in the officers' quarters that Chief had given him. The room was a crisp 62 degrees which was standard on UNSC vessels. He got out of bed as Cortana appeared on a console next to him.

"Morning." Cortana said as Louis jumped.

"The hell!" Louis screamed.

"Sorry to spook you, when we got back Chief uploaded me to the ships' mainframe. I was just going to tell you that the shower is through those doors and breakfast is ready in the cafeteria when you're done." Cortana said.

"Oh, thanks. Where's Chief?" Louis asked.

"He's in the vehicle bay repairing and refitting a Pelican gunship." Cortana said.

"Wait, what's a gunship?" Louis asked.

"Basically it's a fighter jet designed to carry troops into battle and deal massive damage to infantry units." Cortana said.

"Oh, so you're going to use it to rescue Clem and AJ?" Louis asked.

"Maybe, I'm still trying to locate the complex that they were taken too. 21st century sati lights are not what I'm used to working with. However, Chief wants to be prepared for any and all possible contingencies and since a Pelican is capable of transporting anything from a warthog to a scorpion tank, it's good for almost any scenario." Cortana explained.

"Okay, as long as it works I guess." Louis said.

"Don't worry Louis, we'll get them back." Cortana said as Louis nodded.

Louis had some trouble figuring out the doors and the elevator but eventually got it. He came down to the cafeteria and was shocked by such a large room with tables and benches. The others were all there and in a seemingly good mood. Louis sat down and saw a meal laid out for him. It was obliviously not of the same quality as anything that Omar would have made but it was food never the less. Louis took one bite and insanely spit it back out and screamed; "What is this!"

The others started laughing hysterically. Violet said; "You had the same reaction as me and Willy."

"Cortana called them MRE's." Mary said.

"It stands for Meals Ready to Eat or something. Apparently they don't go bad for a while and they're the only food that the Dawn had when it left to fight the flood." Ten said.

"Suddenly I've lost my appetite. Anyone know how to get to the hanger?" Louis asked.

"Cortana said to take that door and follow the right corridor." Mary said.

Louis got up and did as Mary had said. He was still impressed with the automatic doors. As he walked down the corridor, it really accorded to him what Chief had done by bringing them to the Dawn. He realized that Chief had done it to protect them and that he was going to try to take Lily and the raiders alone. At first he was going to try to talk Chief out of it but then realized that he was probably more than capable of killing Lily and her goons on his own. However, he hadn't seen a place for Cortana on the warthog so he figured that the Pelican would need a human pilot. "Flying a futuristic gunship can't be that hard." Louis thought to himself as he entered the hanger. He hadn't noticed how jostled some of the vehicles were last night. There was a tank that was overturned and what looked like a warthog but with a different turret almost embedded in the wall. He then noticed that Chief was working on a jet of some kind.

"Morning Chief." Louis said as he walked over to Chief who still kept working on the jet. "So I was wondering if you needed someone to fly the Pelican while you wipe Lily and her troops out."

"Actually I was going to fly it myself but I take it that you have piloting knowledge since you're asking?" Chief asked.

"Well no but Cortana could teach me right?" Louis asked.

"Kid I know that you want to get those two back but it takes some of the best and brightest in the UNSC years to learn to fly a Pelican." Chief said.

"Actually, I could teach him some basic maneuvers and enough to get him through a short range mission." Cortana said as she appeared on a console near Chief.

Chief gave her a death stare in his helmet but to no avail. Chief finally conceded.

"Fine, but you're going to get out of there the second that I'm on the ground." Chief barked.

"Okay." Louis said.

"I'm almost done with the Pelican, take that projector into the cockpit so Cortana can start training you." Chief said.

Just then the alarms started flaring.

"Cortana, what's going on?" Chief asked.

"Chief I'm picking up five enemy signatures approaching the Dawn. There not human though. They're Covenant!" Cortana screamed.

"They should have brought more troops." Chief said as he grabbed his assault rifle and slid out from under the Pelican.

"Wait, I thought the Covenant were destroyed?" Louis asked.

"I thought they were too. But I guess a lance must have been transported here as well." Cortana said.

"What's a lance?" Louis asked.

"A Covenant squad." Chief said while mounting up a mongoose.

"Chief, I could take them out with a missile from the Dawn's point defense system." Cortana offered.

"No, the Dawn is staying hidden. I'll deal with those Covenant myself." Chief said as he rolled out of the hanger.

Chief followed the coordinates that Cortana had given him on his HUD. He eventually arrived in a cluster of trees. He dismounted the mongoose to keep his position concealed. He had his assault rifle ready and was constantly checking his motion sensor for anything that could give away an elite with active Camo. He suddenly heard what sounded like insect wings and heavy stopping. "Drone and a hunter." He thought to himself. He followed the sound and found a dead walker that had its head blown off. He continued a little further and suddenly found himself face to face with a hunter. The hunter had its cannon turned the other way and was obviously shocked to see Chief. Chief was about to fire when it raised its cannon and other claw in a surrender stance. A split second later a jackal sniper, a drone, an engineer, and a grunt came out of cover and dropped their weapons and held a similar stance. Chief was puzzled but still ready to fire when the grunt spoke up.

"Please, no shoot! We defect from Covenant on Ark! Blast from Halo send us here!" The grunt said in a scared tone.

"How do I know you're not lying?" Chief asked in an ice cold tone.

"We only kill stupid humans that try to eat us!" The grunt said.

"Where's your ship?" Chief asked.

"It crash, we are only good survivors." The grunt said.

"How many of you were there?" Chief asked.

"Many brutes, they capture us. There was an elite, we not find her. Rest of us here." The grunt explained.

"And the brutes?" Chief asked.

"Some die in crash. Others try to fight stupid humans. Most get bit, in chaos we escape." The grunt said.

"Do you have names?" Chief asked.

"Yes. Me Jaxx." The grunt said. "He Mac." The grunt pointed to the jackal who looked like a sniper variant. "He Sill." Jaxx pointed to the green armored drone. "We call him Bruiser." Jaxx pointed to the hunter. "Engineer no have name." Jaxx finished.

"Why were you out here?" Chief asked.

"We decide safest place to go would be your ship. We no hurt good humans, we defect." Jaxx said.

The hunter made a groaning sound and threw a punch at Chief. Chief easily dodged the punch but saw what the hunter was really aiming for. Bruiser smashed the walker that had slowly been creeping up on Chief. The hunter put its hand back up like nothing had happened.

"We kill many of those stupid humans." Jaxx said.

"Okay, follow me. But be warned, I can easily kill you all if I want and will not hesitate to do so if you make any wrong move, understood?" Chief asked.

They all nodded their heads in fear. Chief lead them back to the mongoose and drove slowly enough so that they could keep up. It was now high noon and the sun was sweltering. By the time they reached the Dawn they had nearly passed out from heat exhaustion. All except for Jaxx who rode on the back of the mongoose and Bruiser who wasn't very affected by the temperature.

"Chief, be careful there are more Covenant right behind you!" Cortana screamed over the com link.

"It's ok Cortana. They're on our side." Chief said calmly as they rode up to the hangar via external elevator.

When they got into the hanger the Covenant were amazed to be inside a UNSC ship. Louis was watching from the cockpit of the Pelican and hid when he saw the Covenant.

"Why didn't Chief kill those Covenant?" Louis asked Cortana.

"I don't know, he said something about them being on our side though." Cortana responded.

Louis saw an assault rifle lying on a crate in the Pelican. He grabbed it and took the safety off. Chief had told the Covenant to wait at the entrance of the hanger. Chief walked over to the entrance of the Pelican and explained the circumstances of the Covenant's arrival.

"Funny, I would have detected a Covenant ship and or an army of Brutes by now, especially if they were within hiking distance of the Dawn." Cortana said.

"Didn't you say earlier that you're not used to working with 21st century technology?" Louis asked.

"Well yes, however if the ship was that close then the Dawn's sensors would have picked it up. Wait, maybe it was cloaked!" Cortana exclaimed.

"What do you mean cloaked?" Louis asked.

"The Covenant had a technology called active camouflage. It was able to turn single soldiers and in extremely rare cases fighter jets invisible. I even stole one of the Covenant soldier's active camo module during our mission to stop the flood." Chief said.

"Although the theoretical physics of active camo would prevent such a large object from becoming cloaked. I think it would help to know which ship they were on. After all, I have a complete copy of the Covenant Naval database from my time on High Charity." Cortana said.

"Agreed." Chief said.

Chief and Louis walked out into the hanger and signaled the Covenant to follow them. Louis was following just as much as the Covenant as Chief lead them into a room with a large glass topped table and a ton of monitor screens. Louis quickly deduced that it was some kind of war room.

"Which one of you is the leader?" Louis asked while expecting it to be the drone or the hunter.

Instead all of the Covenant except Jaxx pointed at Jaxx. Jaxx had pointed at Bruiser but was shocked to see all of his comrades select him as their leader.

"Well, Terra was our leader but we no find her after crash." Jaxx said.

"Who is Terra?" Louis asked.

"And more importantly what ship were you onboard when you crashed?" Chief asked.

Bruiser groaned something but seemed to stop half way as he realized that nobody except Jaxx and the engineer understood him. He sort of hung his head down and Louis noticed it.

"He say we were on the Invincible Justice." Jaxx said as the room went deathly silent.

"What was that?" Louis asked.

"The Invincible Justice was a Covenant CCS class heavy cruiser. It had the third most confirmed capital ship kills of any Covenant vessel during the war. Given that fact it doesn't surprise me in the least that it would be outfitted with experimental cloaking technology. It most likely took part in both the second battle of Earth and the Battle for the Ark, we just never knew it because it was cloaked." Cortana said after appearing on the table.

"Yes, both second attack on Earth and battle of the Ark. We try to defect during battle for Ark, but Brutes capture us. They kill most of us; Brute Chieftain take Terra away but then we crash. Stupid humans attacked the ship, at first the Brutes easily kill them all. But then some Brutes start acting like stupid humans and chaos allow us to escape. We hear Brute survivors talking about wrecked Human ship so we go in that direction." Jaxx explained.

"How do you speak English? I mean don't you speak alien or something?" Louis asked Jaxx.

"Grunts learn other Languages very fast, so when we were planning to defect, Terra teach me a few human Languages. My English still not good though." Jaxx said.

"This Terra person sounds really nice, who was she?" Louis asked.

"Terra was our leader. She was an Elite who no like the Brutes but her father stayed loyal to the prophets during great schism. Some say a human save her life. Others say she saw Covenant kill defenseless human children. Either way, she would have died before any harm could come to a human or soldier in her command. She was a rare commander who care for her troops too." Jaxx said. "But who you?"

"I'm Louis, one of a few orphans that Chief and Cortana saved from a group of raiders that wanted to kill us. He saved most of us but one of the raiders killed a good friend of mine and took two of my other friends' prisoner. Right now we're looking for their base so we can save our friends." Louis said.

"Bad humans?" Jaxx said surprised. "Me though all humans good except stupid humans."

"Unfortunately no. The group that attacked them was powerful and well-armed, they were trying to kill children because they wouldn't become slaves and soldiers for them." Cortana said.

Mac scowled, Bruiser groaned, the Engineer hissed, and Sill buzzed at this. They not only detested this new group of humans because of their own moral code but also because their former leader would have given her life to stop people like them.

"Bad humans must die, we help you destroy their base and save your friends." Jaxx said.

"I was planning to take them alone, you all know well that I could, but I suppose a distraction or some support wouldn't be unwelcome." Chief said.

After that Chief went back to the hangar to complete his work on the Pelican and also work on other vehicles. Louis took the Covenant and introduced them to the Ericson crew. Willy didn't like that the engineer didn't have a name so he started calling it Bengi. Bruiser was the center of attention mostly because of his size and cannon. Mary was particularly interested is Sill's wings and what they were made of as well as how Bengi could float in midair. Ten was a little scared of Mac, mostly because he looked so weird. Violet was curious as to why Jaxx was wearing a shell on his back and why he talked in such a high pitch. Aasim mostly kept to himself though. He was still recovering from the loss of Omar. He did notice that every once and a while Violet would try to open the eye lid of the eye that Lily smashed. In addition, she wasn't wearing her eye pad that Mary gave her either.

"So you talk like that because there's a chemical in your suit called methane?" Violet asked Jaxx.

"Yes, it help Grunts in battle." Jaxx answered.

"Hey Violet, why aren't you wearing you eye pad?" Aasim asked.

"Oh, Cortana gave me a fake eye earlier. It's supposed to work just like a normal one but the muscles in my eyelid are still adjusting to it. That's why my eyelid keeps twitching." Violet said. Aasim just nodded his head.

…

In the hanger, Chief had finished optimizing the Pelicans flap system and was doing some final checks to make sure it was in working shape when Cortana appeared on a console near him.

"Good news, another phantom signal appeared a second ago and I was able to trace it exactly this time." Cortana said.

"Were you able to crack it?" Chief asked.

"Yes but I only made out a few words. 'Castle, Black Omen, objective complete, requesting transport, out' is all I could get. However, I have deciphered most of the encryptions so the next one that comes along should fall right into our hands. Anyways I traced the signal and found a rather large complex about 20 minutes' flight from here." Cortana said.

"Is it Lily's base?" Chief asked.

"I don't know why I would be picking her bio signature and those of Clem, AJ, and all her surviving soldiers there if it wasn't." Cortana said.

"Alright we're hitting it tonight." Chief said.

"Wow, slow down. This place is really well defended and you're going to need to be airlifted into this place." Cortana said.

"So, I can fly a Pelican." Chief said.

"And land it after you jump out too?" Cortana asked.

"Look, Louis isn't ready for this and even if he was…" Chief was cut off by Cortana.

"You made a promise to keep him safe and you don't want to even remotely chance it. Chief, you talked about these kids being the new first generation of the UNSC. They won't ever be that if you don't let them take risks and do stuff like this. Besides, we told Louis that he could come and even if we were both created by ONI we should uphold that." Cortana said.

Chief laughed a little inside his head but had to agree. "You're guiding him through it every step of the way and at the first sign of trouble you're getting him out of there." Chief said.

"Conditions excepted. And what about the Covenant? Jaxx seemed pretty intent on help you." Cortana said.

Chief sighed. "I guess they can come too. It would help to have a hunter on our side after all. I would like the engineer to stay on the Pelican though, to help Louis in case something happens."

"I'm beginning to think your acting like a father to these kids." Cortana said.

Chief just walked away at that statement.

"I'll take that as you pleading guilty!" Cortana yelled at him as he walked toward the war room.

…

It was late afternoon at David's community. He had was working on some resource statistics when Jackson walked into his office.

"Where's the kid?" Jackson asked.

"In the aviary with Kandice. I take it you have something from Umbrella, what is it." David said in a friendly way.

"Two things actually. First, Monarch hit one of our outposts just north of here today. The person leading the assault was none other than our favorite individual himself." Jackson said.

"Here!" David asked in a shocked tone.

"Yes, although it's unlikely that they know about your involvement with Umbrella. They might send a small detachment of troops or an agent here to recruit you to their cause." Jackson said in a depressed tone.

"You of all people should know that we would NEVER…" David was cut off.

"We know you wouldn't David. Your loyalty has been put through worse tests before and here we are. No, what I mean is don't instantly kill them." Jackson said.

"You want to interrogate them?" David asked.

"Maybe, but what I think the higher-ups want is to put you inside their lines. To have you falsely join them so we can launch a surprise attack and cripple their operations in this region for good." Jackson theorized.

"Smart plan. Count us in, we'll do anything to take those animals down. But what about the equipment in the basement?" David asked.

"It's ready. We'll use it as soon as we have a confirmed target. Besides, unless you show it to Monarch on a tour, they'll never find it." Jackson joked.

"And what was the second piece of news?" David asked.

"Oh I almost forgot! The bosses want Clementine for something, for what they didn't say." Jackson said.

"Hell, that hag is no use to me. At the moment she's clinging to life by thread anyways. Take her!" David said.

"I actually thought that it would be harder to convince you to hand her over but hey I'm not complaining." Jackson said a little shocked.

"Alright, well tell your bosses thanks for the heads up." David said.

"I will, and don't stay up all night counting crops!" Jackson yelled as he left the office. David got a good laugh out of that as he returned to his work.

As Jackson walked down the hallway, he pulled out the Umbrella badge he had in his pocket and held it up to his mouth. "This is agent Black Omen, objective complete. Requesting transport over."

"This is Castle, transport is enroot. ETA 2 hours. Maintain radio silence until further orders are relayed, over." The badge responded.

"Affirmative, Black Omen over and out." Jackson said as he reached the door.

…

It was late and the sun had set. AJ was feeding a red striped bird in the Aviary as his assigned guardian nervously watched the time.

"AJ, I know you're having fun but it's gettin late. Your uncle will be wondering where on Earth you are, come on we have to go." Kandice said.

"Alright." AJ said in a perturbed tone.

They had almost reached the entrance of the Aviary when Kandice suddenly started floating and grabbing her throat. Before AJ could say or do anything though, she passed out and fell to the ground. AJ was scared out of belief but what he saw next changed that completely. Fear turned into joy as a figure became visible in front of him.

"Chief!" AJ screamed.


	6. Justice, the Spartan way

**(Hey everybody, I want to start out this chapter by thanking everyone for reading this story seeing as how we have officially crossed the 2.5K views mark! I'm going to start introducing new characters this chapter as well as getting rid of some old ones, and yes we finally made it to another fight chapter and this one won't disappoint! As usual, please leave a review, good or bad it helps.)**

**(I do not own Halo, TWD, or any other franchise that I may pull from, such as Resident evil or Halo Reach.)**

**A brief recap of last chapter:**

The Ericson crew settled into the Dawn and were quite impressed with it.

Louis volunteered to fly the Pelican when Chief attacked Lily's base.

Chief discovered and recruited a Covenant Lance that had defected on the Ark and learned that a covenant ship also crashed on earth.

David Carver revealed his reasons for attacking Ericson to Clem.

A new threat is closing in on David's community.

Umbrella is sending a transport to hall Clem off and has created some kind of weapon at David's community.

Cortana hacked Jackson's Umbrella badge and traced its signal.

…

"Alright everyone listen up!" Cortana yelled to the room full of revenge hungry kids and honor bound Covenant. "The plan is to get above the compound at an altitude of 2000 feet and drop Chief into the compound with active camo. After that, we drop the Covenant off about a mile from the compound on what I've identified as the main road. From there the Covenant will create as much of a distraction as possible while still remaining in cover while Chief goes and disables a section of the wall. Once the wall is down, Chief will set off a pheromone bomb I designed to attract every walker in a four-mile radius, further creating a distraction. Chief will then precede to secure the primary targets and neutralize the secondary one. Meanwhile the Covenant will use the walkers as cover to make their way into the compound where they'll rendezvous with Chief. Finally, they all make their way to a helipad on this roof for X-vil. Any questions before we go into who does what specifically?"

"Yeah, will Chief have a parachute or something because 2000 feet seems to be a little high to jump into a base full of mercenaries in the middle of the night?" Violet asked.

"My armor is designed to withstand extreme concussive hits and leave the user relatively unaffected." Chief said.

"Huh, English please?" Violet asked.

"Basically I could fall from the atmosphere with no air brakes and be completely fine." Chief said.

"Oh you know that fact well don't you." Cortana said sarcastically.

Chief rolled his eyes under his helmet.

"I have a question!" Ten yelled.

"Yes." Cortana answered.

"What does X-vil mean?" Ten asked.

"It means the place where you get picked up to escape." Cortana said.

"So just to be clear, the primary targets are Clem and AJ right? And the secondary target is Lily?" Louis asked.

"Yes, the first two come back to the Dawn and the third goes in a body bag." Chief said.

Jaxx raised his hand.

"Yes." Cortana said.

"My feet are cold." Jaxx said.

"Any other questions? No? Then let's move on. Now to the specifics. Louis, I already briefed you on the flight rout. Bengi, your copilot and gunner. It might be confusing at first but you'll figure it out from watching Louis." Cortana said as Bengi the engineer nodded.

"The rest of the Covenant, you'll be dropped off here next to some rather heavy brush. Use it to hide from the compound security while you're not firing. Aside from Bruiser, you'll all be taking UNSC weapons into battle for the soul purpose of concealing your location. Mac, you'll have a sniper rifle outfitted to fire heavy armor piercing and high explosive rounds. Try to neutralize the enemy units by rank, starting from the top. Cause as much damage to vehicles as possible, tires and engines will be prime targets. Sill and Jaxx, you two will go in with suppressed SMGs and assault rifles. They'll have 3x scopes so you should be able to hit your targets at a longer range. Jaxx, you take all the Covenant's remaining plasma grenades and also target vehicles. Bruiser, along with your Cannon and shield you'll be taking an AIE-486H HMG cannon so that any infantry you encounter as well as light vehicles won't be a problem. Your mission will be to cause as much damage possible to this enemy check point and draw out any enemy units in the area. Hold them there for as long as possible before the nearest section of the wall goes down." Cortana said.

"As for everyone who is staying here, I will launch a reconnaissance drone so that we can monitor the situation from the sky and relay intel to Chief and the Covenant. In addition, you'll be helping me get coordinates for archer missile strikes, should the need arise." Cortana said as the other kids faces lit up at the thought of sending a missile to kill Lily and her troops.

"Now Chief, once you get on the ground you will make your way to these three supports on the wall." Cortana said as she pointed out the supports on the holographic map.

"Let me guess, destroying them will collapse a controlled section of the wall?" Chief asked.

"Yes, from what I can make out the wall was built in a rather hurried manner and only reinforced for structural integrity once it was complete." Cortana said. "You will place three tactical explosives on each of the supports and then watch the fireworks. Once the wall is collapsed, you will detonate this pheromone bomb to draw a horde of the undead. After that, we proceed with our main objectives. I will use your suits scanners to locate AJ, Clementine, and Lily. Like you said before, 'Two come back to the Dawn, one goes in a body bag.'" Cortana said as Chief nodded.

"Wait, why do we have to draw the walkers to the compound?" Ten said.

"To make them all pay for what they did to Omar." Aasim said coldly.

"Ten, the compound is heavily militarized and any civilians there should be well protected. We're only drawing the walkers in so that the Covenant don't have to fight an army by themselves. Trust us, we're not trying to kill innocent people." Cortana said with empathy in her voice.

"What do you mean innocent people! There's not a single person in that place that doesn't disserve a bullet in the head! They're all murders and kidnappers! Every last one of them! I'm sorry Ten, but there isn't a single person in that place worth saving! All the proof you need is under the headstones in Ericson's grave yard!" Aasim said brashly.

"Aasim!" Mary yelled.

"Don't, the kid has a point." Chief said to the shock of everyone in the room. "If there were good people in that place then they've either left or conformed to Lily because no human being in their right mind would willingly serve a psychopath like that."

Even Aasim was a little shocked, he hadn't expected anyone to back him up on his point of view.

"Ten, I'm sorry but a lot of people are going to die tonight. However, just know… that they had it coming." Chief said. Cortana was shocked but could also tell by the way John said it that even he had a hard time excepting that fact.

"Chief, what if there are children in that compound? Would you really kill them or leave them to die?" Cortana asked.

"No, but have you picked any juvenile life sings up?" Chief asked.

"Well, no but…" Cortana was cut off.

"Then as far as I'm concerned, there are only two friendlies in that compound. Everyone, you know your jobs, let's avenge Omar and save our friends." Chief said as everyone left to get ready.

"Chief, there has to be another way." Cortana said.

"I wish there was." Chief said as he left the room.

…

"Lieutenant, what is the status of the community to our South?" A mechanically masked voice said in a dark corner of the tent.

"Unchanged sir, however, in the past hour we have identified an Umbrella transport moving toward the compound sir." A Lieutenant said from the entrance of the tent said.

"Then until we have reason to believe otherwise, that compound is to be treated as hostile." The voice said.

"Yes sir. Should we prepare to move against it?" The Lieutenant asked.

"No, not yet. We're going to make Umbrella wait, make them come to us. After we've neutralized any and all B.O.W.'s in the sector, we'll turn that compound into a pile of rubble." The voice said.

"Yes sir, I'll keep you posted on the status of that transport." The Lieutenant said.

"And Shark." The voice said as the Lieutenant turned around.

"Get the troops ready to take on at least two Tyrants. I have a feeling that Umbrella's trying to set a trap for us." The voice said.

"Yes sir." Lt. Shark said as he walked out of the tent.

…

"Check weapons." Chief said to the Covenant in the back of the Pelican.

"Mini-gun is online and counter measures are good." Louis said from the cockpit as all the Covenant also finished inspecting their weapons.

"ETA to jump zone is five minutes Chief." Cortana said through the com-link.

Chief checked his active camo module and his own weapons. He was carrying an assault rifle, a rocket launcher, two SMG's in his holsters, and a magnum on his side. By the time he finished checking his own weapons they had almost reached the jump zone.

"Altitude is 2000 feet with little to no turbulence. ETA to jump zone is 25 seconds, get ready Chief." Louis said.

"Bring them home Chief." Violet said over the com-link.

"Roger, begin countdown sequence to the jump zone." Chief said.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO CHIEF!" Cortana said as Chief ran out the back of the Pelican.

Chief was falling toward an unexpectedly well lit up target. He could see that his original drop point was still good though as it was in one of the darkest parts of the compound. He was about a thousand feet above his intended target when Cortana uploaded the locations of the supports to Chief's HUD. About a minute passed before everyone in the community was suddenly startled by a large boom and a good jolt to all the structures. The crater Chief had left was slightly smaller than Cortana had predicted but was still quite large. Chief quickly activated his active camouflage before a patrol could notice him. Chief quickly made his way to the center of the compound and was about to precede to the coordinates when he noticed two motion signatures in a nearby building which somewhat reassembled a greenhouse but was much larger than any he had ever seen. He moved in quietly to see who was inside and saw AJ walking with a middle aged woman holding an AK-47. She was leading AJ toward the center building.

"Oh no you don't." Chief thought to himself as he got in front of the two. Right when the woman was about to hit Chief, he knocked the gun out of her hands and grabbed her by the throat holding her in midair to suffocate her. She passed out and Chief threw her to the ground. AJ had a look of sheer terror on his face but that all changed when Chief deactivated his active camo.

"Chief!" AJ screamed. "I thought you were dead!"

"I thought they might tell you two that. Where's Clem?" Chief asked as he scanned the surroundings for anyone who could have heard AJ. He then looked down to AJ and saw his face had turned to abject misery. "What's wrong?"

"Lily and her troops killed Clem, David saved me but they killed Clem!" AJ said while crying and hugging Chief. Chief whispered into his com-link. "Cortana, are the Covenant on the ground yet?"

"Yes, I see you found AJ. We can still see this plan through though, just keep him safe." Cortana said.

"No, tell the Covenant not to attack yet. I have to figure something out first." Chief said as he ended the transmission.

"AJ, tell me very carefully what happened." Chief said to AJ who was crying on his shoulder.

"They took us, when my uncle tried to rescue us, someone shot Clem and she turned." AJ said as Chief's heart sank.

"Poor kid, it's one thing to not know your parents or family but to lose them after having spent so long with them." Chief couldn't bear to think about it. But he did have some questions for this 'Uncle'.

"Where is this uncle of yours, I want to ask him some questions." Chief said.

"Wait, is Cortana alive too, or anybody else?" AJ asked desperately.

"Yes, we were all going to attack this place to rescue you and Clementine but now…" Chief stopped and remembered something.

"Cortana, can you locate either Lily or Clementine's bio-sigs?" Chief asked aloud.

"Yes, I don't know what they told AJ or what he saw because I still have bio-sigs for Clem and Lily. They are both very much alive and in that compound, relaying coordinates now." Cortana said as both bio-sigs popped up on Chief's HUD.

AJ was shocked. "Clem is alive! Why would David lie?" He thought aloud.

"Probably to keep you loyal to him." Chief said. "Come on, let's give this 'David' a piece of our minds." Chief said as he started walking toward the exit.

"He lives in that building." AJ said as he pointed to the main building.

"Go figure." Cortana said over the com-link.

The guard at the door heard a knock but when he opened the door he was met with the barrel of a suppressor. One pull of a trigger and the guard was down. Another guard came down the stairs at the sound of the first guard's gun dropping only to get shot in the gut and then in the head twice. A third guard who had seen all of this tried to take Chief from the side but got stabbed in the head by a knife that Chief had taken off the first guard. Nobody heard a sound, not even AJ who was just outside the building.

"Clear." Chief said just loud enough so that AJ could hear it.

As AJ walked in he noticed the dead bodies and was shocked that Chief could kill them so fast and so silently.

"David's office is just up the stairs." AJ said as he ran up them. Normally Chief would have stopped him but in this case it was actually better not to. David heard AJ coming up the stairs and went to the door of his office to greet the boy.

"AJ! How was the walk?" David asked compassionately before seeing who was to the side of the door. He didn't even have time to react before Chief knocked him out cold with one punch.

"Stay here, if anybody comes along and askes for David just tell them that he's asleep. I'm going to go get Clementine and create some chaos. Whatever happens, stay in David's office. I'll either come get you or some friends of mine will." Chief said.

"What kind of friends?" AJ asked.

"You'll know them when you see them." Chief responded.

Chief helped AJ tie David up and then left to execute the original plan. He had made it outside and had turned his active camo on when he heard an explosion.

"There's the distraction." Chief thought to himself.

…

The covenant had gotten tired of waiting. They were dying for the chance to test their new weapons out. They got their opportunity when an armored truck rolled by their cover. It was black and red and had an odd symbol on it.

"Bruiser, destroy bad human's truck with cannon." Jaxx said.

Bruiser began charging his cannon, giving their cover a bright green glow. When it was finally charged, Bruiser didn't waste the shot. The driver of the Umbrella transport only saw a bright green ball coming toward him before the entire vehicle was completely blown to smithereens. Mac croaked before firing at the commander of the checkpoint who was in complete shock over the transport. His head exploded and the tire of the truck behind him flattened. Jaxx and Sill opened fire on the checkpoint guards. They killed three of the five instantly and injured another. They heard Mac croak something in his own native language when the main gate started deploying people to reinforce the checkpoint guards.

"Oh dear!" Jaxx yelled as a firefight began to break out.

…

Lily hadn't been doing much since attacking Ericson. David had forbidden her from going anywhere near AJ and had put her in charge of patrols and security. To her, that was a demotion. In addition, she was universally despised for losing so many troops and failing to actually kill the kids at Ericson. If David hadn't taken pity on her, she would probably be dead by now. There wasn't much grandeur in being the head of security. It was mostly just a title reserved for people who couldn't accomplish the crowd's wishes but got David's private affairs taken care of. "Even in the dammed apocalypse, there's still behind the scenes politics." She kept thinking.

The one silver lining of her new life style was the satisfaction of know that Clementine was finally defeated. Lily had had it out for Clem since the day she and her father met Lee. Maybe she had seen some kind of future with Lee but she but it certainty never involved the child he protected. The more she thought about it, the more she wished that she had thrown Clementine to a pack of walkers when she was just a little girl. Lily did know one thing for sure, if she had killed Clem earlier it would have saved her a ton of trouble. All this she pondered as she strolled along the top of the wall, during her nightly walk. She had gone about half way around the wall when she saw an explosion at the northern check point. She then saw flashes of gunfire and sounds of screams.

"Everybody, this is Lily, we have an attack in progress on the northern checkpoint. I want every available soldier armed and out there now!" She screamed over the com-link. Deep down she wondered though, who could be stupid enough to attack this community?

…

Chief had finished setting the explosives on the second support when he saw four soldiers heading toward the front gate. He nailed all of them in the head with his assault rifle as he slid down the support. Another two soldiers followed around a corner but Chief killed them both with a single punch. He reached the third support right as Cortana checked in with him.

"Where are you at with the bombs?" Cortana said.

"Setting charges now." Chief said.

"Hurry, the Covenant are getting hammered out there." Cortana said as Chief placed, armed and linked the last explosive.

Chief slid down the support and got to a safe distance. "Tell the Covenant to get ready." Chief said. He then detonated the charges and watched as an entire section of the wall crumbled before his eyes. Chief then pulled out the pheromone grenade that Cortana had built and detonated it.

"This is 117 to all units, phase one is complete. Begin phase two." Chief said as he turned his attention to Lily and Clementine's bio-sigs.

…

"Cortana, was that Chief. If not, whose 117?" Willy asked.

"That was Chief. In the Spartan corps, each Spartan was assigned a different identification number. Chief's number was 117." Cortana responded.

"Cool, so how many Spartans were there?" Violet asked.

"About 400 in the Spartan two program. There were more in the Spartan three program but the exact number is classified." Cortana said.

"Then what's a Spartan one?" Ten asked.

"They weren't really super soldier like Chief. They were just more heavily trained humans. They didn't have any of the genetic or cybernetic augmentation like Chief. The suit that Chief wears would kill them too, only Spartan twos' and up were strong enough to control it." Cortana said.

"So Chief is a Spartan two?" Mary asked.

"Yes, he's also one of if not the best of all Spartans too." Cortana said before something on the drone's camera caught her eye. "Now what is that?"

"What is what?" Violet asked.

"The symbol on the truck that the Covenant destroyed is on this dome here as well." Cortana said as she pointed to a dome in the outskirts of the base that had an Umbrella symbol on it.

"Don't you have a massive database; can't you identify it?" Aasim asked.

"No, that symbol doesn't match anything that I downloaded while I was linked to the flood. It's not in my military database either. Whatever it is, I don't think it's friendly though." Cortana said.

"Let's tell Chief, he could be able to get inside and find out more about it." Willy suggested.

Just then the dome began to open. The panels on the top retracted like a missile silo opening. A platform was rising to the top. On it there was one single figure, one single, enormous, ugly, hulking, tank of a person. It carried a massive Gatling gun with it. On its shoulders were panels with the same symbol on them. The freak let out an immense roar and then started moving toward the prison, the same place Chief was going.

"This can't be good." Cortana said.

…

"Chief, there is some kind of elite soldier coming your way. I've hacked into some local communications and they're calling it 'The Nemesis.' I would advise caution." Cortana said as Chief finished off the last soldier in the courtyard in front of the prison.

"Advise noted." Chief said as he smashed the metal door guarding the entrance to the prison. A single guard tried to stop Chief by spraying his AK47 at him but he got no more than six shots of before his head burst open from a magnum bullet. Chief was already halfway up the stairs to the next floor when the poor soul's body hit the ground. Two more guards awaited Chief on the next floor but weren't prepared for his speed. They both fell dead before they even saw Chief coming. Only the door monitor to Clementine's cell remained now and she met a rather gruesome fate. Chief used the speed he had built up to flying sidekick her threw the wall she was corned by. The whole wall gave in and she fell two stories to the ground, however she was already dead when she hit the ground. Chief ripped the steel door guarding Clementine's cell of the wall like it was nothing. He then threw it out the hole in the wall to kill a soldier who had seen the door monitor fall. The entire process of breaching the prison to entering Clem's cell had taken less than 30 seconds. When Chief entered the cell he was greeted by the sight of a horribly beaten, abused, dehydrated, and unconscious teenaged girl. She reminded Chief of what Alice 130 had looked like after augmentation day. The difference between the two was that Alice had received intensive medical care but Clementine had just been left to die.

"Cortana, getting her out of here is going to be tougher than originally anticipated." Chief said before Cortana patched into his scanners.

"Chief, she has massive internal bleeding, she's dangerously dehydrated, she has a severe case of heat stroke, and minor muscle damage. Her hip bone is broken, her left forearm is snapped clean in two, and she has several dislocated and broken ribs. She has a concussion and a violent nose bleed. You need to get her to the Pelican right now if she has any hope of survival." Cortana said.

Chief was about to break off her restraints when he heard a loud roar and increasingly audible footsteps. Chief ripped the cuffs off of Clem, picked her up and ran as fast as he could. However, once he was outside of the prison he was met with a volley of bullets from a massive machine gun. His shields were torn to shreds by the impacts to Chief dove into cover behind a concrete bench. He didn't get much of a brake though as the concrete bench was blown to pieces by the same machine gun. Chief looked up for a split second to see who or what was shooting at him. However, he would never forget what he saw next. It was a massive figure whose face was missing an eye because of a skin graph over it. The stitches were still visible and it had exposed teeth. It was covered in body armor and had one of the biggest Gatling guns he had ever seen. The figure itself was easily 11 feet tall and quite intimidating, just not for a Spartan. Chief laid Clem down and pulled his rocket launcher off his back.

"Sorry pal, but nobody hurts innocent children when I'm around." Chief said as he leapt to the side and fired the rocket launcher straight at the Nemesis's head. There was a massive explosion and great big thud. When the smoke cleared, a decapitated corpse was lying on the ground. Chief breathed a sigh of relief. He went to retrieved Clementine and then went in the direction of the town hall.

…

Lily and her troops had been pushed inside the walls, to a warehouse they used to store wood. Aside from the strange creatures they were fighting, there were also more walkers there than Lily had ever seen. At first she thought that the two threats would wipe each other out, but now it seemed like the walkers weren't even interested with those things at all! They were just mindlessly attacking Lily's troops. Several of her troops had already become their midnight snack, still many others had been bit and scratched.

Lily and two other soldiers were reloading their weapons behind a stack of wood. Lily watched in shock when one of the soldier's heads was suddenly blown clean off. She heard what sounded like a mini-gun as their cover was literally chewed to pieces. She popped her head up for a split second to see what was going on. A large and heavily armored giant was firing the biggest cannon she had ever seen in her life, at them! It had a massive shield and one of its claws looked like it could double as a cannon too. One of her soldiers tried to fire a rocket launcher at the beast, however the shield tanked the hit with almost no knock back or damage at all. Lily was scared out of her mind right now. Even worse was what came over the radio next.

"Everyone, this Joe, that green armored freak is back again and he's inside the walls! We've thrown everything at him! Rockets, layered fire, vehicles, hell even Jackson's science project couldn't stop him. He's broken through every defensive line we put up. He may have caused the breach in the wall and he's already killed everyone I sent to guard the prison. We're trying to hold Town Hall but he's wiping my guys out faster than I can replace them! I can't find Jackson, Lily's at the breach, and David barracked himself into his room. Is there anyone who can help us?" Joe said, as the gunfire over the radio kept getting louder.

Lily might have given it some amount of further thought had not the last soldier in the warehouse, other than herself and the guard next to her, dropped dead from sniper fire. The mini-gun stopped firing but Lily heard something crawling in the rafters above them. She looked up and saw a little dwarf wearing a gas mask and a gold painted shell.

It suddenly dropped something and yelled, "Hey bad human, catch!"

Lily easily caught the now glowing object and attempted to throw it away. She realized her blunder when she was unable to discard the object and saw a shrinking red meter on it.

"OH HELL!" She yelled before being engulfed in a plasma explosion. Fortunately for the Covenant, the guard next to her was incinerated as well. Jaxx slide down from the rafters on a poll.

"HER BOOTS ARE MINE!" Jaxx yelled while gleefully running to the blast sight. However, he was disappointed to find that Lily, and all her articles of clothing, were blown to bits.

"The bad humans are retreating to fight the stupid humans." Mac said, in Covenant, from the rafters.

"We should go find the Demon." Sill said, in Covenant.

"I heard one of the bad human's communication devices say that he was fighting them at 'Town Hall'." Mac said, in Covenant.

"Then we go there." Jaxx said.

Cortana had been monitoring the conversation and had a better idea. "Negative Jaxx, I'm sending Louis to pick you and your squad up."

Jaxx was confused. "But me thought…" Jaxx was cut off by Cortana.

"We're not leaving Chief behind. I'm just getting you to him faster. Good work on clearing that warehouse and surrounding area out though. Get to the back of the warehouse, that will be your extraction point." Cortana said.

"Roger." Jaxx said as he motioned for his team to follow him.

…

"Dammit! This freak just won't die!" Joe yelled while shooting Chief with an M416.

"Boss, Denver is bringing everyone she could gather up in the industrial section. She says that she'll be here in five minutes." One of Joe's guards said.

Chief jumped and did a complete 360 in midair while firing his assault rifle. Joe's entire front line, of 11 people, dropped dead from headshots. A live and strange looking grenade rolled next to Joe. Joe quickly tossed it away from him before it exploded.

"At this rate, we'll all be dead in two." He said back to the guard.

"Chief, I've redesigned the plan." Cortana said over the com-link while Chief smashed another guard's head. He picked up a broken wooden table and used it to block some bullets and then to kill several of the troops that were firing at him.

"What do you mean?" He said very calmly.

"I've determined that Clementine's injuries are too severe to wait for the Covenant to get to you. I sent Louis to pick them up a minute ago. After they've been extracted, Louis will come to get you Clementine, and AJ. You might only have one chance though" Cortana said.

"ETA?" Chief asked.

"About five minutes." Cortana said.

"I'll be ready." Chief said as he kicked a guard threw a wall and blasted another.

One guard popped up to fire a shot gun at the Master Chief. Rather than him pulling the trigger to his shot gun though, Chief pulled the trigger to his magnum. The unfortunate soul's head was split in two as he fell dead. Chief was about to continue his rampage to the second floor when all of the remaining guards came out of cover, dropped their weapons, and surrendered.

"No need for more violence. Whoever you are, you're not going down from our guns so there's no point in wasting more lives." Joe said.

"Leave, and don't come back." Chief said coldly.

Joe nodded and the remaining five or six guards walked out the front door with their hands raised. Chief walked to the entrance after them and picked up Clementine from behind a fallen trust. He had put her there upon entering the building to protect her. Chief ran up the stairs and to David's office.

"AJ, its Chief. Open the door, we're leaving." Chief said.

"How do I know it's really you?" AJ said in a childish way.

Chief kicked the door down. "That's how."

"Clem!" AJ shouted as he ran to the unconscious teen in Chief's arms. "What happened to her?"

"I don't know; we'll figure that out later. Right now we need to get to the roof." Chief said.

"There's a latter just out here." AJ pointed to the side of the glass window where there indeed was a latter. Chief shot the window with his magnum. He also threw the incapacitated David Carver over his shoulder.

"Why are you bringing him? He tried to murder you and Clem and everybody!" AJ argued.

"I'll explain later, but he's going to tell me about someone I met on my way here." Chief said.

They climbed onto the latter and climbed to the roof. The Pelican was almost there but so were the reinforcements.

"I'll hold them off. Get inside that ship and tell the people in it not to wait for me." Chief said while putting Clem and David down.

"But what about you?" AJ asked.

"I'll be fine." Chief said.

Chief ran and leapt off the roof while throwing a grenade. Halfway down Chief had already pulled his assault rifle and was killing everyone he laid eyes on. When he hit the ground he rolled and fired the rocket launcher, destroying an armored truck with a dozen soldiers next to it. He ran out of ammunition with the rocket and threw it into another car which made it explode. A single soldier tried to take him head on but Chief spun around her at lightning speed while twisting her neck. Four soldiers opened up on Chief from the side. Chief took them all out in under a second with his assault rifle but ran out of ammo in the process. Another troop with a sniper rifle broke Chief's shields but got a knife in the head as a result. One particularly heavy soldier rushed Chief but got his head slammed into the pavement. A bullet ricocheted off Chief's helmet from another raider. Chief half cut his head off with the magnum. Chief dropped another six soldiers before running out of ammo. He ran at some more troops and killed them all with melee attacks.

The Pelican landed on the rooftop and opened the back door. AJ saw what looked like aliens in the back but then remembered what Chief had said about his friends. The biggest one came and helped AJ into the ship and picked up both David and Clementine. He laid them both down on medical stretchers with care.

"Where's the Demon?" One of the aliens asked.

"Chief? He's fighting those guys to keep us safe. We have to save him!" AJ yelled.

Louis had been listening to the conversation and after realizing that Clem and AJ were safe, he decided that nobody was getting left behind.

"Bengi, get ready to fire the gun!" Louis yelled to his Covenant copilot.

"RHHMM?" It responded.

"The gun." Louis pointed to the controls for the main cannon.

"RMMENNNN!" Bengi shouted as he realized what Louis meant.

"Hold on back there." Louis yelled as he lifted the Pelican off.

Chief had finished off most of the soldiers but two grey skinned hulking mutants had showed up. They weren't nearly as deformed as the Nemesis and they carried no weapons. They still had the same logo on their uniform though and were as strong as Chief. He busted one's neck but it was only dazed. The other threw a car at Chief which knocked him over. He was getting up when one jumped and threw a side kick. Chief hit the ground hard and was struggling to get up as the two approached him. Suddenly one of them started getting torn to shreds by the Pelican's cannon. The other tried to throw a car at the ship but it fired a missile at the creature which reduced its entire upper body to ash. The first creature had been cut up pretty badly by the Pelican but it was somehow still moving. The Pelican fired another missile and killed the first creature as well. The Pelican kept firing at any remaining soldiers while Bruiser helped Chief into the ship.

"Eat lead scum bags!" Louis screamed while Bengi destroyed anything that moved.

"Louis, get out of there." Cortana screamed.

"Alright, just had to teach these guys a lesson is all." Louis said.

The Pelican took off and flew toward the Forward unto Dawn.

"Hey kid, good job." Chief said to Louis.

…

"Lieutenant, what is it?" The black armored Spartan asked when Lt. Shark entered his tent.

"Sir, intelligence just reported that the community we've been monitoring was just attacked. Rather successfully too. Stealth satellites confirm three B.O.W.'s down. Two tyrants and one Nemesis. The person leading the attack may have been a Spartan but the ID number that our spies picked off of him doesn't match any Spartan in our database." Lt. Shark said.

The black armored Spartan chuckled a bit when he saw the footage. "This war may be ending sooner than we thought Lt."

"Sir, what do you mean?" The Monarch soldier asked.

"This man is a Spartan two. His existence is top secret so he wouldn't be in the files from my suits database. His name is John. Rank Master Chief Petty Officer. And he's the only reason that Reach's orbital defenses lasted as long as they did. Our top priority just switched to locating him." The Spartan said.

"Has command cleared that?" Lt. Shark asked.

"They will." The Spartan said.

"Yes sir." Shark left the tent.

The Spartan entered a code into his computer and an officer appeared on it.

"What is it Noble leader?" The Admiral asked.

"Sir, do you recall my initial debrief to the President and the Joint Chiefs of staff?" Noble Six asked.

"Yes, you were way less talkative then." The admiral joked.

"Intelligence has just encountered Spartan Sierra 117 leading a group of survivors in a raid on the Compound that we suspected Black Omen to be operating in." Noble Six said as the admiral's face got dead serious.

"Sir, what are my orders?" The Spartan asked.

"Noble leader, your orders are to locate and recruit John 117 at all costs." The admiral said.

"Affirmative, Noble leader over and out." Noble six said as he terminated the transmission.


	7. Joy Ride

**(Hey everyone, I wanted to say that I welcome scolding reviews when it comes to Chief and my errors in the lore. Silence does more damage than voicing an opinion because when you stay silent, I DON'T LEARN! Thanks to everyone who has criticized my use of Chief's character and my errors in the Halo Lore. I'm a better writer for it. As usual, please leave a review, good or bad, it helps)**

**A brief recap of last Chapter:**

Chief and the Covenant attacked David's community.

Chief compromised the walls.

Jaxx blew Lily up.

Chief killed an Umbrella Mutant and rescued Clem and AJ.

Clem was severely injured when Chief found her.

The rescue crew escaped without casualties.

Noble Six found out about Chief's presence in the past.

**(I do not own Halo, The Walking Dead, or any other franchise that I may pull from, such as Resident Evil, Halo Reach, Godzilla, or the Loud House.)**

…

"Will she be okay?" Louis asked from outside the medical bay.

"I wish I knew Louis. She's sustained some severe injuries. I'm doing what I can but it might not be enough." Cortana said.

"If she makes it, when will I be able to talk to her?" Louis asked.

"I don't know that either, she's in a comma. We can't know for sure, but it was likely caused by extreme trauma to the head." Cortana said.

Louis put his hand on the glass while watching the robotic arms and medical devices work on Clem.

"She'll be okay kid. She held on this long." Chief said before taking Louis out of the room.

AJ, the Ericson crew, and the Covenant were waiting in the hall outside.

"How is she?" Aasim asked.

"Not good." Louis said.

"Cortana's doing her best. That's the bottom line." Chief said.

"Is there anything that we can do?" AJ asked.

"Not right now." Chief said as he walked down the hall.

AJ started crying. Bruiser picked him up and held him. Mac and Sill left to get some food. For reasons that they themselves weren't aware of, the others stayed.

Chief walked into the war room.

"How is she really?" Chief asked.

"I'm shocked that the kid made it this far. Her body has more reasons to quit right now than the Covenant had to be scared of you." Cortana said.

"How long?" Chief asked.

"A day, maybe less. There is still some hope that I can stabilize her but its grim." Cortana sighed. "How could they do such a thing to a teenaged girl? How bloody barbaric can people get to do that! At least the Covenant had a half good reason for trying to kill humans but these people…" Cortana was cut off by Chief.

"He can shed some light on this." Chief said while watching a security feed of David Carver's cell.

"Chief, normally I'd tell you to use some restraint but…" Cortana trailed off.

"I understand." Chief said.

…

David still had a splitting headache. The walls of his cell were metal, so was the door. There was definitely an air conditioning unit since the room was cool and the light was artificial so there must have been power. He tried to get up and found that something was holding him down, but he couldn't see it. 'How ironic.' He thought to himself. Suddenly the door retracted into the wall and he stood there. That massive green soldier that had killed over half of Lily's team. He really was huge, seven feet or maybe taller. And he looked pissed.

"Before you say anything, I AHHOWWW!" David stopped short in his sentence when Chief slammed his chest with a punch. David felt at least two of his ribs turn into powder with the massive hit.

"There's a small part of what my friend is feeling right now!" Chief said in a tone of voice that could make anything cower in fear. "Now I'll make this simple, tell me everything about the mutants at your base and why you attacked that boarding school, or else!"

"Alright! Those things were genetically enhanced walkers that were designed to destroy everything in their path." David winced from pain.

"Who made them?" Chief asked.

"Umbrella." David responded.

"Is that what the logo on their uniforms meant?" Chief asked.

"Yes, they were a pharmaceutical company before the outbreak but now they try to keep some level of peace. They turn walkers into mutants, like the ones you saw, and use them to defend communities like mine." David said.

"Did they know that you tried to beat, and torture a disabled teenaged girl?!" Chief said coldly.

"She deserved what she got!" David yelled.

Chief wanted to kill him so bad and actually had to mentally stop himself from doing anything.

"Why?" Chief asked in voice that could kill.

"That hag killed my brother, kidnapped my nephew, almost lost him to strangers in Maryland, killed tens of good soldiers, soldiers with families, and put my nephew in danger every step of the way." David hissed. He clearly had no remorse for his actions. Before Chief could speak, Cortana appeared on a nearby table.

"Let's fact check everything that you just said. First, Umbrella, a biological research subdivision of D.A.R.P.A. had three installations, New York, Los Angeles, and Houston. All three of which are currently over run by walkers. Second, I ran genetic tests on AJ a couple hours ago. His Parents were Rebeca and Alvin Persilo. Your brother William Carver, a notorious crime boss, is not his father. And as for those "good soldiers with families", they tried to kidnap and kill children as young as seven. So David Carver, literally everything that you just said is false. And yes I know exactly who you are." Cortana said.

David was dumfounded. This mouthy little blue hologram had just blown the doors off every lie he had told and even some things that he thought were true.

"What even are you?" David finally asked.

"Mad as hell." Cortana snapped.

"He's useless, just let me kill him." Chief said while winking to Cortana in his helmet. Cortana was baffled for a nanosecond but realized what Chief was doing.

"Sure, I mean he has committed 21 crimes in the past 72 hours." Cortana said.

"Alright! The only thing I haven't told you is that Umbrella, or at least the people calling themselves Umbrella, are looking for something in the forest south of my community. An advisor of mine told me that something crashed out there but that they hadn't found it yet. That's all I know ok!" David pleaded.

Cortana nodded to Chief and then disappeared. Chief raised his magnum up to the prisoner's head.

"David Carver, you are charged with murder in the third degree, two counts of kidnapping, abuse of a minor in the first and second degree, willfully lying to a military interrogator, illegal possession of firearms, unprovoked assault, illegal trade, and possession and use of biological weapons. Per UN law, you are hereby sentenced to life in prison." Chief said as he lowered his gun, walked out of the cell and closed the door.

"They're looking for the Covenant ship." Chief said.

"Chief, when I said that Umbrella wasn't around anymore… Well, I was talking about Umbrella from our universe." Cortana said with some worry in her voice. "I finished going through all the information that I could find from before and during the initial outbreak. Umbrella in this universe was a pharmaceutical company; however, I think that that was just a cover."

"For what?" Chief asked.

"Well, they did a pretty good deal of business down in South America involving parts, that when put together would create a linear kinetic launcher. Oddly enough, the passive strain of the virus is airborne. They also invested rather heavily in the research of one "ancient mutagenic pathogen." Furthermore, they were amassing a pretty hefty private army in the two years leading up to the first reported outbreaks. They even built several of what I would assume were bunkers around the world. Closest one being in Raccoon city." Cortana said.

"Cause the apocalypse, then take over the world." Chief followed.

"Exactly." Cortana said.

"Well if they get their hands on that Covenant ship, they'll be well on their way to doing it." Chief said.

"Let me guess, you're going to stop them?" Cortana asked.

"Yes, but why do it myself when I could bring a hunter with me?" Chief asked before walking down the hallway leading to the medical bay.

…

When John got to the medical bay, only Louis and AJ were still there.

"Where did you go?" AJ asked.

"To get answers." Chief responded.

"Do you know if Clem is going to be ok yet?" Louis asked.

"I don't know kid. Have you seen Bruiser or any of the covenant?" Chief asked.

"They went to the mess hall." Louis said.

Chief started walking away but turned back to Louis.

"Hey kid, whatever happens with her, just know that you did everything you could." Chief said knowing that Clementine wasn't going to make it.

Louis nodded with some amount of hope left. Chief walked away thinking about all the people he had lost in the war. He still remembered the names and faces of every Spartan, Jorge, Sam, Alice, Jerome, and Douglas were the ones that immediately came to mind. He remembered both of the Keys, and how they heroically gave their lives for humanity. But no loss stung more than that of Sgt. Johnson. John also realized that he was probably never going to see Cali, Fred, Linda, Admiral Hood, Dr. Halsey, or even the Arbiter again either. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how many people he had really lost. All that was left was Cortana. John suddenly remembered what Sgt. Johnson had said just before he died. 'Don't ever let her go!' To some degree, the only person that he really had in this world was Cortana. John just kept asking himself one thing though. 'Why did these kids have to experience that feeling of lose too?'

Chief reached the mess hall and found Violet, Jaxx, Bruiser, and Sill there. Violet was resting her head in the corner, Bruiser was just staring at the ceiling, and Jaxx and Sill were speaking Covenant to each other.

"Cortana, have you located the Covenant ship yet?" Chief asked in his helmet.

"Yes, I have its exact location. It's about a day long drive on a warthog or a few hours long flight with a Pelican." Cortana said.

"Bruiser and Sill, come with me." Chief said.

"HMMPH?" Bruiser responded.

"Some people connected to the compound we just raided are after your ship. They're not going to find it if we have anything to say about it." Chief said.

"What about me and Jaxx?" Violet asked.

"No offence but you've been through a lot lately Violet. And Jaxx is more useful in the war room than in the line of fire." Chief said

Violet scoffed but relented. The hunter and drone followed Chief into the vehicle bay where Cortana had prepped the Pelican for launch. The Covenant sat in the back while the Master Chief flew the ship. After the group had taken off, Cortana relayed the coordinates of the ship to Chief's HUD. Meanwhile Violet had an idea.

"Hey Jaxx, what do you say we take the Warthog and follow Chief?" Violet asked with a smile on her face.

"Well, the Demon said that I more useful here…" Jaxx naively responded.

"Oh come on, he just thinks that you'll get in the way. Besides, what if your friend… the Elite is still alive?" Violet argued.

"Okay, we go but not let Demon see us." Jaxx said.

"Deal, come on lets get to the hanger." Violet said before running toward the elevator.

They had just made it to the vehicle bay when Cortana asked; "Where do you two think you're going?"

"We go look for Terra." Jaxx said stupidly.

"No, Chief can handle it. Besides, there are likely hostiles in the area where he's going." Cortana said.

"The warthog has a turret. Come on Jaxx." Violet said before starting the engine.

Jaxx hopped in the passenger seat but the hanger door started closing.

"Nice try Cortana!" Violet said before gunning it out the door right before it closed.

'Rats!' Cortana said to herself.

"Chief, Violet and Jaxx took the warthog and are trying to follow you. What should I do?" Cortana said.

"They'll get lost, and we'll pick 'em up on our way back. Just track their position." Chief said.

…

Violet and Jaxx had gotten to what use to be an interstate highway and were driving in the general direction of the Pelican. Violet was driving like a speed demon and Jaxx was just trying to hang on.

"Can you please go slower!" Jaxx yelled.

"No way, this thing is awesome!" Violet yelled back.

They had been going for around 45 minutes when a loud shot rang out. The windshield of the warthog cracked and Violet heard Jaxx yelp. She quickly turned her head to see that Jaxx had a sizable gash in his left arm and he was bleeding bad. Another shot rang out and a spark flashed on the hood. Violet started moving in a serpent motion to make it harder for whatever sniper was attacking them. She had gone less than 800 yards when a squad of soldiers in black and red gear started shooting the warthog from all sides. Violet spun thee wheel and lost control when a bullet hit the center console and shorted it. The warthog careered off the road and fell down a series of inclines, before finally stopping after hitting a tree. Violet was dazed and nauseous but otherwise okay. Jaxx's arm however, was almost entirely covered in purple blood. Jaxx himself was unconscious but the injury spoke for itself. Violet was trying to decide what to do when she heard what sounded like shouts from up the hill. She grabbed Jaxx, pulled him out of the truck and started running into the forest. Violet kept running till her legs literally gave out. She stopped by the side of a stream that had thick tree cover.

'At least those guys will have a hard time following us.' Violet thought to herself.

She tried to rap Jaxx's arm with some cloth she had on her but he just kept bleeding. Eventually she heard a twig snap in the distance so she drew her pistol and waited by the nearest tree. Every second felt like an hour and every sound was like a warning sign for danger. She heard another crunch behind her and looked back expecting Jaxx; however, she found herself staring at the barrel of a high powered rifle. The person holding it looked about her age. He was about five foot eleven, had an eye patch, and had longer brown hair. Behind him stood another woman about her age who was holding a pistol. She wore a lime green coat and blue jeans. She had a rather thick pair of glasses and her reddish brown hair was nicely combed.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" The guy asked menacingly

"Okay, I'm Violet. My friend and I were ambushed and we ran. He's hurt so I brought him here for better cover." She said frantically.

The gunman lowered his weapon.

"Let me guess, Umbrella?" He asked.

"I don't know who they were, I barely even got a look at them. They had red and black military gear, that's all I know." She said.

"Yeah, Umbrella. Sorry for getting off on the wrong foot. I'm Carl, Carl Grimes. This is my associate Lisa Loud." Carl said.

Lisa lowered her weapon but still kept her eyes trained on Violet.

"Your friend, he's not human. What is he?" Lisa asked in cold tone.

"He's a grunt, a member of a collective of alien species called the Covenant." Violet said.

Carl raised an eyebrow.

"He's hurt, do either of you have anything to treat him?" Violet asked.

"I'll look at him." Lisa said.

She walked over to the Unggoy and began looking at the gash in his arm. She then looked at some of Jaxx's armor including his mask.

"Whatever it is, it can't breathe oxygen, not by itself. The armor its wearing is a mobile gas apparatus, likely for helium. I need to seal its wound, its exposed to oxygen and there's already rapid tissue decay. About how long ago was he shot?"

"Wow, nothing gets by you. About an hour ago." Violet said shocked that this person could simply look at Jaxx and understand basic parts of his physiology.

"Okay, the bullet was likely a 50 caliber full metal jacket and it grazed him. It missed what I think is a major artery but it's still lost a lot of blood." Lisa said.

Violet noticed a young little girl peep her head out from behind a far off tree. Her skin tone was much darker than Carl and Lisa's so she was probably not related.

Carl evidently noticed too when he said; "Ally, it's okay their friendly. You can come down."

The little girl went from tree to tree, never taking her eyes off Violet, until she was next to Lisa.

"Aunty Lisa, who are they?" Ally asked in a timid tone.

"People that need help, and uncle Carl and I are going to help them." Lisa told the child.

Ally looked to be about four years old and had a scar on the back of her neck.

"Come on, there's a cave not far from here that has better cover and an advantage point, if any Umbrella troops are pursing you, they'll give up before they reach it." Carl suggested.

Violet nodded and helped Lisa carry Jaxx to the cave. It was a hard hike up a tall hill. Carl carried Ally on his shoulders most of the way up. Seeing it remained her of what Clem had told her about Lee and how he cared for Clem after her parents died. When they finally reached the cave, it was about noon and the sun was blazing hot. The entrance to the cave was well hidden in a thicket but still had a good vantage point for spotting incoming people or walkers. Lisa pulled out some kind of medical kit and started working on Jaxx. Carl took up a sniper position at the entrance to the cave. Ally walked over to Lisa and curled up in a corner behind her. Violet walked up to Carl.

"So what's your guy's story?" Violet asked.

"It's a pretty long and boring one. How about you?" Carl asked.

"Equally long but not so boring." Violet said.

"I got time." Carl said.

"Okay you asked for it." Violet said. She then told Carl everything from Ericson and the crew there before the outbreak to the arrival of Clementine and AJ to when they first met the Master Chief to the attack on David Carver's community.

"That is one heck of a story. How's Clementine now?" Carl asked.

"Not good, Cortana doesn't know if she'll recover or not." Violet said sadly.

"I will admit, I can envision these Spartans that you were talking about and I have living proof of the Covenant, but Halo and the flood seem a bit farfetched to me." Lisa said from the corner, proving that she was listening the entire time.

"Dang, nothing gets by you does it?" Violet asked.

"Listening into conversations is a skill you pick up fast when you live in Umbrella territory. Besides, I had graduated college with two PHDs when I was four. So the statement "nothing gets by you" would be correct." Lisa said, while never taking her eyes off what she was doing to Jaxx.

"Lisa is the dictionary definition of Einstein. Ally got bit on the back of the neck a year ago and she would have died if Lisa hadn't figured out how to kill the virus." Carl said.

"Wait, you guys have a cure?" Violet asked shocked.

"Not a cure, more like first aid. My method does kill the virus but only the passive strain and fresh bites. If a bite goes more than two hours without my treatment, you either have to amputate the limp or you die. Honestly, short of a very targeted and perfected Nano probe attack, there's no possible way to kill the late stage active strain and survive." Lisa said harshly.

"So you were some kind of child genius before the outbreak?" Violet asked.

"I came from a family of thirteen, out of eleven children I was the second youngest. I like to say that out of the eleven of us, I got all the intelligence." Lisa said.

"So what happened to the other ten? If you don't mind my asking?" Violet asked.

"Well surprisingly, they all survived the initial outbreak. Even managed to save a bunch of family friends and other people from our town. But time takes its tolls, over the years we just got picked off. One by one. Some settled down in communities to the north, others died. Eventually it was just me, my older brother, and his wife and daughter. We finally settled down in Carl's dad's community but…" Lisa trailed off.

"Umbrella attacked us, they killed everyone. We were the only ones to make it out alive." Carl said.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Violet said.

"Don't be, that was years ago. All that matters now is our survival. There's no use in nor time for weeping for the dead these days. Hell, they practically rule the world." Lisa said.

Violet's memory shot back to Omar's funeral and the burial rite that Cortana recited.

"Well what have we here?" Carl asked.

"Hmm?" Violet shot around. "What is it?"

"There's a squad of Umbrella soldiers down at that creek" Carl said while looking through the scope of his rifle.

Violet looked out to see the soldiers herself and sure enough, they were identical to the attackers on the road. They wore full body protection, their main armor was black but had patches of red on the chest plate and shoulder pads.

**(Think black version of Gears of War armor except the visors are red instead of blue)**

"See those patches of red on them?" Carl asked.

"Yeah, what are they?" Violet asked.

"They're walker blood soaked sponges. They wear 'em to keep the walkers oblivious to their presence. They have air filters in their helmets to block the stench too." Carl said.

"How do you know so much about these guys?" Violet asked.

"I killed one once, took his gun and armor and infiltrated their ranks for a few days. They are seriously messed up people but have the best military in the world these days. They're at war with some holdout of the United States military though, Monarch is what I think they're called. They aren't doing so hot though, in fact last I heard at the base was that Umbrella had just flipped a city out of Monarch's hands." Carl said.

"When was that?" Violet asked.

"About six months ago." Carl said.

The Umbrella soldiers suddenly started hiking up the hill.

"Oh boy." Carl said.

"I though you said they wouldn't come this far?" Violet said.

"They never have before." Carl said. "Well, we're not going down without a fight." Carl fired one shot and watched the visor of their leader crack as he fell backward down the hill.

The other soldiers took up defensive positions but not before Carl had killed two more of them.

"Lisa, stop what you're doing and pack your stuff up. Umbrella found us." Carl yelled.

"Two steps ahead of you Carl." Lisa said while closing up some last things on a military grade brief case.

Jaxx was patched up and semi awake but still drowsy.

"What… happening?" He asked Violet who ran over to help him up.

"Long story, bad guys are trying to kill us right now. That all you need to know." Violet said.

Carl fired another shot and killed another soldier but the squad as a whole had moved up drastically.

Lisa grabbed her pistol and walked over to the entrance of the cave.

"Carl, enough of the one hit one kill doctrine. Have you ever heard of this thing called suppressive fire?" Lisa yelled before emptying her whole magazine in the general direction of the squad.

"We've been over this!" Carl yelled while taking another shot and killing another troop.

"I don't care how little ammo you have for that rifle! Just shoot at the basters and get them to back off!" Lisa yelled while reloading.

The squad had almost made it to the entrance when they were all cut down by what sounded like a different automatic weapon. A weapon that Violet had heard before.

"That wasn't me." Carl said in a scared tone.

Suddenly a figure jumped down off the roof of the cave and landed right in front of Carl and Lisa.

It stood up to full height and was over seven feet tall. It wore black armor and had a UNSC assault rifle in its hands. On his shoulder pad, were three logos. An American flag, two triangles that formed an infinity sign, and a UNSC logo.

"Chief?" Violet asked.

"I hate to disappoint you if you were expecting 117. I am Spartan B132, AKA Noble six." The Spartan said.

**(For all my Halo fan base, my apologies as I was going for more of a WD chapter. Next time though, the Chief will fight some covenant.)**


	8. War and Peace

**(Hey, everyone! First, I would like to thank everyone for the support! You guys are amazing, and I am very thankful for all the attention that this story has been getting! Second, I am going to write a side story around one or two of the characters for A New Mission. The poll should be on my profile and my new forum, "Halo Storm Front!" If you guys want a place to discuss Infinite or Halo stories you've read/written, then check it out! Just as a warning for the next few chapters, I have not had a lot of time to storyboard lately, but I am going to get back to that soon. As usual, please leave a review, good or bad, it helps!)**

**A brief recap of the last chapter:**

Clem is dying from her injuries.

Chief and Cortana discovered that Umbrella is looking for the Covenant ship.

Violet and Jaxx tried to follow Chief on the Warthog but were ambushed.

Violet met Carl Grimes, Lisa Loud, and Lisa's niece, Ally Loud.

Umbrella attacked Carl and Lisa's hideout but were thwarted by Noble Six.

**(I do not own Halo, TWD, or any other franchise that I may pull from such as Resident Evil, Halo Reach, The Loud House, or Godzilla)**

…

"Chief?" Violet asked.

"I hate to disappoint you if you were expecting 117. I am Spartan B132, AKA Noble six." The Spartan said.

"Wait, there are other Spartans here? And if you're not Chief, where is he?" Violet asked.

"Yes ma'am, however, the only other Spartan currently in this universe is 117. As for the second question, that is what I am here to figure out." Noble Six said.

"Sorry, I'm not following. Violet, who is this clown?" Carl asked.

"Sir, I am a genetically modified soldier called a Spartan. I am currently in the service of Monarch. Our mission is to locate and rescue survivors of the apocalypse and destroy Umbrella." Noble Six said.

"You keep saying 117, do you mean Chief?" Violet asked.

"Yes, Spartan Sierra 117's rank is Master Chief petty officer. From what I've heard about him, it doesn't surprise me that he would choose to go by that over his number or name." The Spartan said before tapping his helmet and appearing to listen to a transmission. "We need to go; Umbrella is sending reinforcements this way. My troops are trying to slow them down, but we won't have much time."

Lisa had finished packing her equipment. She loaded her pistol, grabbed Ally's hand, and said; "Then let's not squander time."

The group left the cave and followed the Spartan. They could hear gunfire off in the distance as well as what sounded like rockets.

"You never asked about the grunt," Violet said while carrying Jaxx.

"He hasn't tried to kill you, and a Covenant ally is not something you pass up in war." The Spartan said.

"War, Chief said the war ended and that humanity won?" Violet said, confused.

Six stopped and looked at Violet. "We won? How?"

"Humanity found a way to turn the Elites on the Covenant. But you would know that?" Violet's voice turned to suspicion.

"Let's just say; I've been out of the loop for a while." Six turned and kept walking.

"Violet, this guy is one of those Spartans that you were talking about?" Carl asked.

"Yes, I've seen them in action before. Let's just say; we're well protected." Violet responded.

They kept moving until they reached the main road.

"Wait, we got ambushed here!" Violet yelled.

"Don't worry, Monarch already swept this area." The Spartan said while pointing to a dead Umbrella soldier.

Violet saw other troops all dead on the ground. A soldier wearing a different armor ran over to six.

"Lt. Shark, report." Six said.

"Umbrella's got a B.O.W. up the road, as well as several armored units. We're doing our best, but they're crushing us." Shark said.

"Pull the troops back, let them come to us. I'll deal with them personally." The Spartan said.

"But, that would cut us off from Evac." The Lt. protested.

Six turned to Violet. "How close is 117's base of operations?" Six asked.

"The Dawn? It's not far, and I think it has defense systems too." Violet said.

"Lt. Have this girl direct your retreat effort. I will rejoin you after the enemy units are neutralized." Six said before taking a militarized motorcycle in the direction of the fight.

"Do they all do that?" Carl asked.

"Yeah," Violet sighed.

Six made his way down to the front line of the battle. Indeed Umbrella did have a B.O.W. It was a tyrant, nothing that Six hadn't handled before. The hulking mutant charged Six but was dumbfounded when he slid his bike between the beast's legs and embedded a grenade into its back. The blast tore the mutant in half, but its upper body was still alive. Six jumped off his bike, grabbed a rocket launcher off a fallen Monarch soldier and incinerated the remainder of the beast. Six threw the rocket launcher at two approaching Umbrella troops, killing them instantly. A walker attacked Six from the side but had its head blown off but the Spartan's fist. Six used the body as a shield while he charged an enemy tank. The machine gun made quick work of the walker body but didn't have a chance to hurt Six's shields before the Spartan was on the tank. He punched through the hatch and went to town on the unfortunate crewmembers. Looking on in shock, the remaining Umbrella troops saw the main gun turn toward them. Six fired the main gun, killing five Umbrella soldiers and injuring more. He then armed a grenade, placed it in the ammo rack, jumped out, and saw the tank explode. Six drew his assault rifle and proceeded to cut down any Umbrella soldier, or even walker that was still moving. Once the enemy had been neutralized, he calmly made his way back to his bike and rode off.

The Monarch squad hadn't come off well from the either though. Of the fifty soldiers that had engaged Umbrella, Shark counted only twelve as still alive. They had two armored vehicles left, and it was a tight fit inside of them.

"Aunty Lisa, where are we going?" Ally asked Lisa.

"Somewhere safe. Just keep your head down for me, okay?" Lisa said kindly back to her niece.

"Okay." The little girl said before putting crouching down in the corner of the vehicle.

"If you don't mind my asking, how old is she?" Lt. Shark asked Carl.

"Ally? Four and a half. Most of that she's spent on the run with us." Carl said.

"So, she's not related?" Shark inquired.

"Not to me, but she's Lisa's niece. Her parents were Lincoln and Ronnie Anne Loud. Great people, but nothing good lasts around Umbrella." Carl said.

"Oh, I didn't mean to bring up a painful memory." Shark apologized.

"No need, we moved on a long time ago," Lisa said coldly.

"So how about you, who are you?" Violet asked.

"Ah, where are my manners. I am Lt. Max T. Shark, Monarch 1st mobile infantry division. I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. When the outbreak first hit, my family and I fought rather than hid. When the National Guard finally secured the island, I joined the military to take back the rest of the island chain and, eventually, the rest of the country. A little while after we had secured Oahu, I was asked by Noble Leader to join the mobile infantry as his second in command. I have fought with him and Monarch ever since." Shark said.

"Hawaii is still safe?" Carl asked.

"Yeah, Umbrella's master plan was to cripple our military right after the outbreak because they knew that countries like the U.S., Russia, and China would be able to stop the infection with our superior military. They demolished military bases and reserves in almost every state, but thanks to Noble Leader, they failed in Hawaii and had trouble in D.C. The National Guard had remnants in states like California and Georgia, but they were either overwhelmed by the infection or systematically destroyed but Umbrella. Eventually, we got our feet back under us, and with advanced military weapon designs from Noble Leader, we took back the Hawaiian Islands, San Diego, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Anchorage. Before we found out about Serria 117's presence in this timeline, we were trying to insert the mobile infantry into this area as a distraction for our invasion of Portland." Shark explained.

"So, you guys are just taking back coastal cities from Umbrella and the undead?" Violet asked.

"Pretty much, it's been slow going, but we're making progress," Shark said.

"I infiltrated Umbrella for a few days, and I heard that they had just taken a city from you guys?" Carl asked.

"They must have been talking about Richmond; it was a community around here that helped us when we first started causing trouble here. Umbrella didn't take too kindly to that, and they tried to destroy the community, and it was a community, not a city. Anyways, Noble Leader held Umbrella off long enough for us to get all the inhabitants out of there and back to our staging ground. From there, we got them back to Hawaii, and to my knowledge, they're all fine and happy." Shark said.

"Sir, there is a large structure up ahead." One of the drivers of the transport yelled back to Shark.

"Human ship!" Jaxx said as the Dawn came into view.

Suddenly their communications system was hacked; "Unidentified transports, halt your approach or you will be destroyed!" A female voice said.

"Wait; let me and Jaxx say something!" Violet pleaded.

Shark nodded to the driver. Violet made her way to the radio. "Cortana, it's Violet. These guys are with us, and they're friendly." Violet said.

"Need I even ask what happened to the Warthog?" Cortana said.

"Umm, about that… We got jumped by these guys called Umbrella…" Violet was about to continue when Cortana yelled. "Umbrella attacked you! You didn't let them follow you, did you?"

"No ma'am, we destroyed their units and retreated." Shark stepped in.

"Who is this?" Cortana asked.

"A friend," Shark said.

"Fine, make your way into the main hanger. And Violet, don't do something that stupid again." Cortana said.

The Monarch transports made their way into the hanger and were joined by Six on his bike. The ship dumbfounded Carl, but Lisa was just curious. Cortana appeared on a console in the hanger and was about to say something when she saw Noble Six.

"Well, hello stranger, long time no see." She said sarcastically.

"My apologies, ma'am, but I do not think we are acquainted." The Spartan said.

"Oh come on you don't remember me, I did choose you over the rest of Noble team to get me to captain Keys after all?" Cortana said.

That jogged Six's memory. "You are…"

"UNSC AI Cortana. And yes, I was the AI that Halsey needed you to get onboard the Pillar of Autumn," Cortana said.

"I hear we won?" Six inquired.

"We did," Cortana said.

Meanwhile, Louis had come frantically searching for Violet.

"Violet! Where the hell have you been?" He said as if the sky was falling.

"On a stroll, how's Clem?" She asked.

"She's the reason I came to get you. She's slipping fast! You need to be there if…" He could not bring himself to say the next part.

"How badly is your friend hurt?" Lisa asked.

"Bad," Violet said.

"Let me have a look at her," Lisa said.

"I appreciate the offer, but if Cortana can't save her…" Louis was interrupted.

"Cortana isn't me," Lisa said.

"Louis, she saved Jaxx from a pretty bad injury, if there isn't any hope left, it couldn't hurt to try." Violet pleaded.

"Alright, follow me!" Louis said before running to the medical bay with Lisa and Violet.

When they got there, Clem's heart rate had spiked.

"Lisa took one look at everything in the medical bay, then Clem and said; "She's going into anaclitic shock; I need some space," Lisa said.

The others left and went to the viewport of the medical bay. They watched as Lisa worked tirelessly, and with such a knowledge of the tools, she was using that it seemed like she was born with them. In under an hour, Lisa had stabilized Clementine. She walked outside the medical bay and said; "Well, someone did a number on her. Anyways I have her stabilized and out of her comma. With any luck, she should be awake in a day or two."

"Wait, you just did in an hour what a literal supercomputer couldn't do in a day?" Violet said in shock.

"Problem with computers is that they overthink everything. They get locked into simulating outcomes of problems, and based on that; they use the most logical or best-ended simulation to try and fix the problem. They lack the ability to try something completely untested with unforeseeable outcomes. The human body is one tuff thing, and you can never really predict any certain outcomes in it. I'm not saying that your AI isn't brilliant, I'm just saying that there are certain qualities about its thinking process that make it an illogical choice for a doctor." Lisa explained.

…

Chief had lost contact with Cortana about an hour ago; however, he had predicted that a Covenant jamming beacon would be active in the area. Chief set the pelican down about half a mile from the ship, but already he noticed a heightened walker presence. When the door opened, three walkers tried to board the pelican, but Bruiser made quick work of them.

"Keep your eyes peeled for surviving brutes, putting them down should be our number one priority," John told the hunter and drone.

They made their way through thick forest until reaching a wall with semi-active camouflage. Chief nodded to Bruiser who, in turn, charged his cannon and nocked in the wall. The blast attracted the attention of several walkers, so the group heaped some debris in the way of the make shit door after they were through. Based on directions from Sill, the group their way to the bridge. When they made it to the entrance, the door was jammed. While Sill looked for an alternate route on a terminal, Chief pried the doors open. The sight on the bridge was horrifying. There were bones everywhere, all of them belonging to brutes. Any corpse that hadn't already been reduced to a skeleton was in the process because of the brute walkers that had taken over the bridge. The gore even made John wince a little. Just before Chief raised his assault rifle to put the beasts out of their misery, he noticed three or four of them still trying to bash in a service door. He motioned it to Bruiser, who apparently got the message as he started charging his cannon. John and Sill opened fire on the walkers. Most of them were cut down instantly but the ones that were not actually ran at the group. While Chief was shooting them, Bruiser fired his cannon and obliterated every zombie in the way of the service door. Once all the walkers had been dispatched, John walked over to the door. He gave diplomacy about a half a second of thought and then kicked the door in. He stepped in with his assault rifle raised but saw another dead brute. However, this one had not been bitten; it had been shot. Chief turned around to see an Elite in the corner. It was bleeding from its side, from what appeared to be a stab wound. It had a storm rifle next to it; however, the Elite had not raised it.

"If you're going to kill me, just do it." The Elite said in a recognizably female voice.

"You're Terra, leader of the defectors, aren't you?" Chief asked.

The Elite made something resembling a smile, then said; "What's left of her."

"Are you bitten?" Chief asked.

"No, but never the less, my fate is sealed." She removed her hand from her injury to reveal its severity. "This is not a recent injury."

"You're not dead yet," Chief said before helping the Elite to her feet. However, she could barely stand with Chief's help, much less walk on her own.

"Are there any surviving brutes left on the ship?" Chief asked while helping her out of the service hall.

"One, possibly two. They aren't a threat to you though; in fact, they're the reason this ship crashed, to begin with." Terra managed to say while Chief carried her.

Bruiser caught sight of Terra and ran over to her.

"BMMHHHBB!" It said.

"It is good to see you too, my friend," Terra said compassionately.

"Sill, have you been able to disable the jamming beacon yet?" Chief asked.

"VVVVVERT" The drone croaked while nodding its head.

"Cortana, do you read?" Chief said into his com-link. "Cortana, respond!" Chief finally gave up trying and turned to Sill. "You're sure you disabled it?"

The drone nodded again.

"What is wrong, human?" Terra asked.

"Someone else is jamming our coms," Chief said before going over to the window and looking down. Chief saw several transports pulled up to the ship; all marked with an Umbrella logo. "Is there any way to restore the ship's defense systems?" Chief asked.

"The controls should be to the terminal beside you," Terra said.

"It doesn't have power," Chief said.

Sill looked at his consul again and saw that the main reactor was offline and that both secondary reactors were powering life support and the cloaking device. He pointed this out to Chief.

"Bruiser, find something to stop her bleeding. Sill, keep working on punching threw the jamming frequency. I'll be back." Chief said.

John exited the bridge and accessed a terminal in the main hall. After locating the main reactor, he drew his assault rifle and started heading toward the coordinates on his HUD. About a third of the way to the reactor, Chief found himself in a corridor with ten undead brutes. The first beast never even saw Chief before it had been shot in the head. The second had heard the shots but also never saw the Spartan before its head was punched in. John grabbed a piece of debris and smashed it into the head of another. By now, the remaining seven brutes had noticed Chief and were charging him. John threw a fallen trust clean through the heads of the fourth and fifth brutes, but the six had successfully closed the distance between it and Chief. The Spartan was thrown several meters backward but rebounded off the wall, drew his assault rifle, and put the sixth, seventh, and eighth brutes down. The assault rifle ran out of ammo, but John did not intend to give his opponents ground. He threw the rifle at the closer of the two remaining walkers, killing it instantly. The final beast had almost reach Chief when he doubled back and threw the sidekick to end all sidekicks. The brute's head flew across the hallway, and the body doubled over. Chief did not waste any time though; he was off to the reactor as soon as his foot hit the ground. Occasionally he ran into one or two more walkers, but they were easily dispatched. Finally, John reached the entrance to the main reactor; the door had been forcibly barricaded, so he assumed that the brutes Terra had mentioned were inside. John opened the door and then barricaded it to avoid further conflict with the undead. Ahead of him stood a damaged main reactor, and at its base was one lone brute who seemed to be making repairs. The alien looked back at Chief, and then calmly resumed its work.

"There is no need for your weapon here human; those who would have done you wrong are dead." It said.

"Who are you?" Chief asked.

The beast stood up and turned to face John. "I am Vernum. I am what humans would call the ships chief engineer. I am also a secret ally of Terra and humanity. It was my wife and I who brought this ship down before Halo fired. How ironic that I now toil to undo my prior actions."

"How badly is the reactor damaged?" Chief asked.

"This ship will never fly again, let us put it that way. I have been working to restore defensive systems and security measures to rid the ship of the infected. As of now, I must only reroute several couplings, but they are located all across this deck. My love is working on one now, in the upper inverse fusion core. I am aware that tensions between our peoples are the same as when the prophets lived, but may I request your assistance in repairs? It would greatly speed things along." Vernum asked.

"I would say yes, but there's a small army of some very bad people trying to gain access to this ship right now," Chief explained.

"Then it is imperative that we complete repairs to the defense matrix as soon as possible. Come human; we have much work to do." Vernum said before leading Chief in the direction of the first power coupling.

While on the way, John noticed a good number of dead brutes. However, these had not been reduced to skeletons like their comrades on the bridge. Rather, these had been shot and stabbed to death.

"You two killed all of these guys by yourselves?" John asked.

"No, they killed each other. When the fighting had settled down, we simply eliminated the survivors, and there weren't many." Vernum said coldly.

"Why did you guys defect, especially you, a brute?" Chief inquired.

"I was never, what is the expression that humans use? 'A fan' of the mass genocide of a race that had so much to give culturally and architecturally. Those were my passions before the war. My distrust of the prophets only grew with the number of battles we won. However, I would have stayed loyal to the Covenant if not for one moment. Once, I was sent to oversee the fortification of a stronghold on a recently conquered world. The local population of humans had either been captured or killed. Those who did survive were faced with brutal deaths at the hands of my kind. However, your people, rather than abandoning them to die like mine, would sent a lone soldier to rescue the remaining humans. I was unlucky enough to meet this soldier face to face." Vernum turned his head to reveal a massive scar on his neck. "That warrior had every right to kill me then and there, but they didn't. They made sure I was not getting back up and then said; "You're alive because, unlike you and your kind, we can show mercy." I will never forget those words, the face of that soldier, or the incomparable act of mercy they showed me that day. It made me come to terms with who the real aggressors of the war were, not humanity but the Covenant. As for the others, all I know is that they saw things, good and bad, on the field of battle that changed their perception of the war as well." Vernum finished as they arrived at the first coupling.

"We will need to align the coupling with the linear stabilizers, then reroute power from the secondary generators through it," Vernum explained.

Chief looked at the coupling and helped Vernum drag the mass of cables beside what could have been mistaken for a magnifying glass.

"Now stand clear human, even you cannot withstand the amount of power that is about to surge through these cables," Vernum said before accessing a terminal to the side of the coupling. Chief took careful note of what Vernum had just said and stepped backward. Just after he did, there was a buzzing noise, and a beam of energy was projected toward the core. Vernum finished checking the power readout on a terminal and then directed Chief toward the second coupling. While they were making their way to it, an explosion rocked the ship. Chief grabbed Vernum, who would have fallen over a guardrail into the core from the shock.

"We got to get moving, something tells me they're getting impatient," John said.

A communicator on Vernum's belt suddenly started talking; "My love, something just attacked the ship, are you alright?"

"I am fine Morrissa, thanks to our new human ally," Vernum responded to the device.

"Human? Here?" Morrissa asked over the communicator.

"Indeed, but have no fear, he is a friend," Vernum said.

"Well, extend my gratitude to him. Moreover, do not delay, that blast ruptured the hull. We could have intruders." The voice said.

"They won't be a problem once the defense matrix is restored, and even so, they must bypass the infected before getting to us," Vernum said, almost gleefully.

Vernum turned to Chief; "My wife, she was allowed to serve aboard the ship because of her extensive knowledge of the cloaking device and advanced quantum mechanics. Now let us make haste; we still have two more couplings to repair."

…

Major Nix stood atop the mobile command vehicle. He wore the standard uniform of an Umbrella officer. His black hair resembled a military cut, but it had been grown out. His skin was deathly pale. The joke among the ranks of Umbrella was that he never stepped outside in his life. However, he was outside today, at least. His ears were still ringing from the general shouting orders at him. 'DON'T LET MONARCH WITHIN A THOUSAND MILES OF THAT SHIP!' He might have been frightened if not for his past, a past full of loss and pain. It was a past that he blamed completely on Monarch, and his mission today was to avenge it.

"Sir, the explosive charges that we set pierced the hull." One communications officer said.

"Good. Move our troops in; we're going to crush whatever resistance is left on that vessel." Nix said.

"Sir, latest from intel. Monarch destroyed that blockade we had set up on the highway. They haven't confirmed it yet, but they think that the 'Spartan' was present during the engagement." Another officer said while handing Nix a tablet.

"Any survivors?" Nix asked.

"No, sir, casualties were complete." The same officer said.

Nix scrolled through the pictures of the wreckage for about a minute. "Tell intel to confirm the presence of Noble Leader in this region," Nix said mechanically.

"Sir, how do you know?" The officer asked while relaying the transmission.

"I've not only seen his combat style first hand, but I've dealt with a 'Spartan' before," Nix said.

Nobody asked any more questions. They had all heard the rumor that Nix had killed one of these "Spartans" in New York. Simultaneously, they had all heard about how an entire infantry division got wiped out in New York a few years back by a single Monarch soldier.

"Tell command to scramble birds and hunt that Monarch unit down," Nix said after a while. One crewmember made particular note of the grin that was coming on to his face.

'Probably wants to add another one of those guys to his kill count,' the crewmember thought.

"This is Task Force Gamma to Castle, over." The communications officer said.

"This is Castle Gamma, we read you, over."

"Requesting aerial surveillance on R-74's last known position, over."

"Roger, birds will be up within the hour, over and out." The transmission ended.

"And then there was one," Nix said.

…

"That ought to do it," Vernum said while reconnecting the Defense Matrix to the main reactor, which was also now operational.

"Do we have communications back?" Chief asked.

"Yes." The brute said.

"Cortana, do you read?" Chief asked over his coms.

"Chief! I take it you disabled the jamming device?" Cortana asked.

"Twice," Chief said sarcastically.

"Okay… Well, you are never going to believe who just showed up at the Dawn!" Chief cut off Cortana.

"We don't have time right now; Umbrella is attempting to board the ship, and we have a critically injured asset here," Chief said.

"Don't worry, help is on the way," Cortana said.

"You didn't send the kids, did you?" Chief asked.

"No, an old friend is on his way to link up with you. And he may or may not be bringing a small army with him." Cortana said.

**(Hey guys, I know it's been a while. I wanted to get this chapter up over the weekend but a family tragedy prevented that. Anyways, I am going to do as much writing as possible over this weekend and will hopefully have a new chapter out soon. In addition, I saw the trailer for TWD Saints and Sinners. It looks awesome and I definitely plan to use content from it in this or other stories. [Once it comes out, of course.])**

**PS (Before everyone goes NUTS over my "MISUSE" of the Brutes character, I just want to say that I am setting up a dichotomy between the savage nature of the Covenant and the values that the defectors hold dear. {Pursuit of Knowledge, Peace, Freedom, and Equality among species.} Vernum and Morrissa contrast to Brutes like Atriox and Tartarus because they, and the other defectors, represent a push toward knowledge and peace rather than war and destruction. So please, do not hate on me for this one :)**


	9. An old friend

**(Hey, everyone, so the poll I announced last chapter is officially closed. I held off on posting this chapter to give the poll time. It was actually a tie between Noble 6 and Lisa Loud. I was originally only going to do one story, but hey, two is cool. Due to school ramping up lately, updates might slow to once a month. I will try my best to avoid that, but grades come first. As usual, please leave a review, good or bad it helps.)**

**A brief recap of the last chapter:**

Six rescued Violet, Jaxx, Carl, Lisa, and Aly.

Six destroyed an Umbrella blockade while the remaining Monarch troops escaped.

The survivors arrived at the Dawn and Lisa saved Clem

Chief, Bruiser, and Sill found the Covenant ship and rescued Terra.

Chief met Vernum, and the two restored the ships' defense matrix.

Major Nix and an Umbrella troop detachment are attempting to board the ship.

Noble Six and Monarch are en route to help Chief defend the Covenant ship.

**(I do not own Halo, TWD, or any other franchise that I may pull from such as Resident Evil, Halo Reach, Godzilla, The Loud House, or TWD [show])**

…

"Old friend?" John asked.

"Well, you never actually met him. Probably heard of him, though. Spartan B132, Noble Six." Cortana said.

"He was declared KIA on Reach; they found his helmet!" Chief said.

"Long story short, he was transported to this Universe somehow and helped the United States Government get its feet under itself to fight Umbrella," Cortana said.

"ETA?" Chief asked.

"30 minutes, I trust you can hold Umbrella off that long?" Cortana asked sarcastically.

Chief silently chuckled and ended the communication. He then turned to Vernum, "Reinforcements are inbound, but we need to buy them a half an hour. Any Ideas?"

"We could attempt to antagonize the infected," Vernum suggested.

"If these guys started the infection, I would assume that they would be utilizing some method of camouflage to protect themselves. If we stir up the walkers, we might only be hurting ourselves." John said.

"A good point, we could also put the ship on full lockdown. It wouldn't help us repel them, but it would slow their advances into the ship drastically." Vernum said.

"Right now, we need every advantage." Chief activated his coms. "Sill put the ship on full lockdown."

…

On the bridge, Sill pressed a couple of buttons, and the ship entered lockdown.

"I envisioned it being harder to ally ourselves with the humans," Terra said in covenant.

"Well, we almost died when we first encountered the demon." Sill said back in Covenant.

Bruiser had been doing as much for Terra's injury as his size would allow, but she was still in critical condition.

"Save your energy; you are hurt worse than you think," Bruiser said in his own language.

Terra was a master of languages, and although she was physically incapable of speaking in Bruiser's language, she understood him perfectly. She laid her head back against the wall.

Sill had been hard at work getting the exterior defenses online and finally got one AA battery up and running. He targeted the closest Umbrella transport and incinerated it. Another transport fired a missile at the battery, damaging it but not destroying it. Sill targeted another transport and wiped it off the face of the earth. Another missile finally took the battery out of commission. Sill attempted to bring up another turret but found none functional.

…

"Twenty minutes!" The soldier at the front of the armored transport yelled back to the rest of the crew, which included Shark and Six.

"Roger, keep us posted!" Six yelled back.

"Sir, how many hostiles are we expecting?" One of the soldiers to Six's left asked.

"10 confirmed infantry transports, 15 unconfirmed. Possible mobile artillery units and pheromone vehicles. The enemy also has air support, but our jets should knock them out before they get to us." Six responded.

"Sir, is it true that you guys found a UNSC ship?" Another soldier loading a mini-gun asked.

"Now, where on earth did you hear that one private?" Shark asked making the soldier a bit nervous.

"We overheard somebody talking about it at camp, sir!" Another female soldier said.

"Didn't they tell you, kids, that hearsay isn't viable Intel in basic?" An older and more battle-hardened soldier asked coldly.

"Yes sir, they did!" A soldier with three red scratch marks on his chest plate said in a smart-ass comeback.

"You know, just 'cause we're the same rank doesn't give you the right to talk to me that way, Davis!" The older soldier snapped.

"Sir, with all due respect, maybe if you weren't such a jack-ass, they would have promoted you." The soldier with the mini-gun said.

"Ted has a point, Hunter," Shark said, siding with the mini-gun trooper.

"Oh, shut up! I was blasting terrorists long before any of you were in high school." Hunter, the older soldier jeered.

"How much you want to bet on that private?" Six asked calmly.

"Roasted!" Davis said while he put an additional sniper rifle magazine in one of his vest's pockets.

"Where the hell did they even find you, Davis?" The female soldier asked.

"Anchorage," Davis said.

"Well, there you go," Hunter said jokingly, inspiring a small chuckle from everyone else except Six.

"Well, how about you Hope, where'd they find you?" Davis said, trying to save what little of a reputation he had left.

"They didn't find me; I found them jack-ass." The female soldier, Hope, snapped.

"Privates Fandrick, Dow, and Tucker are originally from Hawaii." Six said.

"How about we all introduce ourselves so that there's no confusion," Hunter said jokingly.

"You know, that's the first good idea you've had this week Hunter," Shark said.

"Max, I think you just volunteered to go first." Six said.

"Dammit," Shark said under his breath. "Okay, I'm Lt. Max Timothy Shark. Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii; I've served with the 1st infantry for about ten years now." Shark said. "So what now, popcorn?" He asked to which Six nodded. "Okay, popcorn Hope."

"Oh, gee thanks. I am Private second class, Hope Yassee Tucker. I'm from Oahu Hawaii, and I just enlisted three months ago. Popcorn Davis." Hope said.

"Okay, I'm Private 1st class Davis Ken McConner. I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and have been in this unit for about a year. Popcorn Noble Leader." Davis said.

Six was surprised at this but decided to answer it. "My real name is classified as is my place of origin. I can tell you that I served in the UNSC Spartan 3 program as a head-hunter, test pilot for the saber program, and as a replacement unit on a special ops team from which this brigade gets its designation. Popcorn Private Fandrick." Six said.

"Oh, that's me. Umm… Hi, I am Private second class Teddy Jones Fandrick, but my friends call me Ted. I am also from Oahu, and I literally got here yesterday. Umm… I guess popcorn, Hunter." Ted said.

"Thanks, kid, now let me show you all how it's done. The name's Private 1st class Hunter Paul Dow and I have been with the US 1st mobile infantry since Operation Desert Strom."

"Dam! And they never promoted you?" Davis asked, shocked.

"Yeah, something about a 'complete inability to lead,'" Hunter said looking at the roof.

"Imagine that." Shark joked, getting everyone to laugh and a small but noticeable chuckle from Six.

"Oh yeah, laugh it up! In fact, keep laughing; you can distract the walkers for me while I kill them all." Hunter said.

"Five minutes!" The soldier at the front yelled.

"Roger!" Six yelled back. "Alright, enough chatter! The plan is for Fireteam Cyclops to go ahead of us and distract Umbrella while we slip into the ship and make contact with 117. Private McConner, you're on overwatch. Stay outside; Stay out of sight. Neutralize anything that tries to follow us and give sniper support to Cyclops." Six instructed.

"Yes, sir!" Davis said.

"Upon entry, Lt. Shark, Private Dow, and Tucker will sweep the eastern sector while Private Fandrick and I sweep the western. We will meet up in the central power core. Am I understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" The others yelled as gunfire could be heard, getting louder and louder.

"Alright, ramp down in 3, 2, 1, go!" The driver yelled as the door of the transport opened, and Fireteam Legion dashed for cover in a Walker infested battlefield.

Six was the first out, as he had a shield and was the fastest. He ran across the field, dodging several bullets while firing a brand new UNSC style US army assault rifle. He hit and killed several Umbrella soldiers before throwing a grenade behind a dirt mount, killing several snipers and a soldier with a stationary gun. While Six covered, the others followed behind him and took up defensive positions. They were taking the brunt of the fire, and their support was nowhere in sight.

"Where the hell is Cyclops?" Hunter yelled while shooting his assault rifle at a group of Umbrella soldiers who were trying to cross cover.

"Their transport must have been hit!" Shark yelled while gunning down several walkers approaching them.

"What do we do now?" Ted screamed in a panic.

"Improvise!" Hope yelled as she took out a grenade.

Before she could prime the grenade though, several plasma missile banks on the side of the ship fired and destroyed the front-most portion of Umbrella's lines.

"What the hell?" Hunter asked in shock.

"Dude, that was awesome!" Ted exclaimed.

"117 must have control of the ship's defense systems." Shark theorized.

"Ask him yourselves! Move!" Six yelled to his squad as he ran to the entrance that Chief had used.

Legion booked it to the entrance while their enemy was recovering. Two Umbrella soldiers guarded the entrance, but Six made quick work of them. The rest of the squad made it to what they thought would be an open hallway but found a sealed door that several Umbrella soldiers had been trying bypass. In the background, the gunfire started up again.

"Well, sh*t!" Hope yelled.

"What are your orders, sir?" Shark asked.

"Hold the position while I bypass the defense system." Six said.

"Yes, sir!" Everyone yelled before singling out targets and cutting them down.

Six took out a high-powered mobile transmitter. "This is Noble Leader to Cortana, do you read me?"

"I read you Six, what's your status?" Cortana said.

"Pinned outside the ship, I need you to override a covenant defense system." Six said.

"Roger, connect your transmitter to a terminal," Cortana instructed to which Six obeyed.

"This may take a minute, keep this terminal covered," Cortana instructed.

"Roger, Noble Leader out." Six responded before joining his team.

"Sir, this is Davis. I have solid contact with several B.O.W.s." Davis said over the radio.

"Specify." Six ordered.

"Four tyrant class, usual loadout, and six nemesis class, heavily armored and armed." The sniper reported.

"Report coordinates and specifications to HQ; do not engage!" Six ordered.

"Yes sir," Davis responded as the door opened.

"Move!" Shark yelled.

Legion ran inside just before a rocket hit their position. Once inside, they split up into their groups and began sweeping the ship. Sharks team had cleared about half of their sector when they encountered two brute walkers. The beasts were mauling the corpse of an Umbrella soldier down the hallway, much to the horror of the team.

"What… The… Hell?" Hope asked quietly.

"I've seen some crazy sh*t, but that takes the cake by far," Hunter said in shock.

"From what I know about the Covenant, I'd say those two are, or were, brutes," Shark said.

"Can we slip around them? I don't know about you guys, but I'm not keen on fighting two alien zombies five times my mass."

"No, I want to get that corpse away from them. We need to know where that guy came from, and where the rest of his squad is." Shark said.

"Frag down the hallway?" Hunter suggested.

"Should distract them long enough." Hope seconded.

"Aright, don't miss," Shark said before handing Hunter a grenade.

Hunter threw the grenade over the walker's heads and into the hallway behind them. It detonated, instantly gaining their attention. While the brutes were away from the body, Shark and Hope dragged the body down the hallway to investigate it. Shark took the comlink and GPS chip from the soldier's helmet and began investigating them. Hope and Hunter kept lookout for the walkers but became increasingly worried when they didn't return.

"Great. Just great." Shark said.

"What?" Hunter asked.

Shark tapped his comlink, "Sir, we've found the body of an enemy soldier. His GPS chip indicates that hostiles have secondary entry points."

"Roger, proceed with the objective." Six said over the coms.

"Affirmative, Shark out." He said, finishing the transmission. "Alright, we're going to have to take care of those things. Aim for the knees to stun, and eyes to finish."

"Roger." They both said while advancing down the hallway.

When they turned the corner, they found not only the two walkers from before but also several others dead. In addition, there were bodies of Umbrella soldiers, enough to comprise an entire squad.

"Oh… That's not good." Hunter uttered in fear.

Before any of them could more, Chief dropped down from the ceiling and trained his rifle on Hunter and his pistol on Shark.

"Friendly!" All three yelled in unison.

Chief, seeing that they were not Umbrella or walkers, lowered his weapons. "Monarch, I assume?"

"Yes, sir! US Army 1st Mobile Infantry, Fireteam Legion." Shark said.

"Where's your CO?" Chief asked.

"Went down another hallway searching for you, sir!" Shark said respectfully.

"Contact him and establish a rally point at the main reactor, I'll escort you there myself," Chief said.

"Sir, that's our current rally point," Hope answered.

"Good, follow me," Chief said, before leading the team through several hallways full of bodies.

"Good Lord! You do all of this?" Hunter finally asked while going through another hallway full of dead walkers and Umbrella bodies.

"Yes," Chief answered coldly, making the team wonder how this Spartan stacked up against their leader.

They finally reached a door that appeared locked.

"Vernum, open the door," Chief ordered as the door opened to reveal a massive room. They stepped inside before the door closed and locked again. The first thing that they noticed was the sheer size of the reactor, which took them all back. The second was a pair of brutes working on ship systems and monitoring a terminal's readouts.

"Contact!" Hunter yelled, but his attempt to raise his gun was met with a signal to hold fire by Chief.

"They're friendlies," Chief reassured.

"Ah, human! I see help has arrived." Vernum said.

"And it won't last much longer either," Shark said before turning to Chief. "Sir, there are multiple bio-organic weapons outside. Our forces are not equipped to handle their heavy weapons."

"Once your CO arrives, I'll engage Umbrella's external forces. Until then, our objective is guarding these two while they make repairs." Chief said.

"For which we are very grateful." The female brute, Morrissa, said.

"Sir, I don't understand. Aren't these guys' hostiles?" Hope asked Chief.

"Negative, they're defectors," Chief answered while checking a terminal monitoring several hallways. He then proceeded to unlock one of the doors on the other end of the core room.

The members of Fire Team Legion looked across the room and saw Noble Leader and Ted enter the room. Chief made a hand signal, indicating the two to come to his position. Once the two had arrived, Six walked up to Chief.

"Sir, Noble Six, Spartan 3 UNSC special forces. It's an honor to finally meet you." Six said.

"The honor is mine, sir. I believe you outrank me." Chief said, seeing Six's rank patch on his armor.

Six looked at the brutes, "Friendlies?"

"Affirmative, what's the situation on this planet?" Chief asked.

The ship rocketed, and an explosion sounded from the hull.

"I'll answer that question later; for now, we need to eliminate all hostile units outside." Six said.

"Agreed," Chief said before grabbing a storm rifle.

"Lt. Shark, hold this position and protect these assets." Six said before, he and Chief left the reactor room.

…

Monarch had started the fight off strong but was now being utterly destroyed by Umbrella's superior numbers and BOW's. One Monarch soldier managed to dodge a hailstorm of bullets while retreating from his earlier position, only to be slammed on the ground by a nemesis. He covered his head as the monstrosity prepared to pound him into the ground, but just before it could kill the soldier, it took a sniper rifle round to the side of the head. The beast recoiled but did not die due to its enhanced bone structure that could survive a couple of high caliber impacts. Before the BOW got a chance to recover from the hit, a mortar shell struck it center-mass, finally killing it.

"Dam! We finally got one!" The mortar cannon's spotter exclaimed.

An RPG was fired at the mortar's position and scored a direct hit, leaving only the spotter alive and in bad shape. The wounded soldier regained consciousness only to see another nemesis approaching him, wielding a massive rocket launcher. Davis, seeing the situation, fired at the beast's head and disoriented it, but not killing it. The nemesis turned its attention to the Legion sniper in the tree line and readied another missile. Davis shot the cannon's sights out, but the beast did not need them to kill the sniper. However, in its desire to eliminate the sniper, it had neglected to notice the mortar spotter loading and aiming his own cannon at the nemesis' head. The mortar spotter fired, leaving only the bottom half of the BOW in existence. Davis wiped a drop of sweat off his head before noticing movement near the entrance of the ship. He looked through his riflescope and saw Noble Leader stabbing an Umbrella soldier in the head with his knife and another Spartan behind him firing a DMR at the enemy troops with deadly accuracy. He grabbed his communicator and yelled into it, "Noble leader, come in, this is Private McConner."

"What's our status, Private?" Six asked.

"Three BOW's down, but we've sustained heavy casualties," Davis yelled before nailing an Umbrella soldier who was firing a mini-gun.

"Roger," Six said before switching to an open Monarch frequency. "All remaining Monarch troops pull back to the staging area. I'll deal with these guys personally."

A tyrant spotted Six and charged him but was slammed in the side of the head by Chief, who knocked the beast to the ground and then drove a piece of debris through its head. Chief picked up the body and threw it into a group of enemies, crushing them. He then pulled out the storm rifle and cut down the rest of the enemy soldiers in his immediate area. Six, meanwhile, used his assault rifle to melee an enemy across the face, kick them through a barrier and shoot them twice in the head. Chief spotted a nemesis wielding a machine gun, chewing apart the cover protecting two Monarch soldiers. He threw a plasma grenade onto the beast's weapon, destroying it, while he closed the distance between himself and the BOW. Once he was close enough, Chief jumped over the beast's head landed on its back in a lion kill chokehold. Chief then shot the creature repeatedly in the back of the head with his storm rifle. He depleted the magazine but also killed the monster, allowing the two soldiers to escape. An Umbrella tank began targeting Chief, but he jumped out of danger right when the cannon fired, ensuring that the shell killed a group of Umbrella infantry. Chief landed and ran around to the side of the tank before throwing a grenade down the barrel and taking cover. The tank exploded, attracting the attention of another tyrant. This tyrant attempted to throw a destroyed Monarch transport at Chief, but its elbow sustained a sniper rifle round, making it drop the transport and pin itself. Chief saw a C4 charge on a dead Monarch soldier, which he proceeded to acquire, arm, and lob at the tyrant. The blast killed the tyrant and destroyed a pheromone vehicle, which had been attracting walkers.

Six had been eliminating infantry and enemy vehicles, during which he had acquired a rocket launcher when he saw a mobile artillery unit that was guarded by a nemesis, the one remaining tyrant, a small herd of walkers, and many infantry. "117, focus on the artillery unit!" He called out over the comlink. Six threw a grenade and neutralized all the enemy units between himself and the main defense force, which in turn focused on him and not Chief. Chief had reloaded the storm rifle and flanked the tyrant with it. The beast took the bait and was leeward away from the rest of the defenses. Once it was far enough, Chief threw a plasma grenade on its throat and blew the BOW apart. He then returned to the artillery unit to find that Six had killed all the infantry and most of the walkers. The nemesis was distracted with Six, so Chief took a couple of Umbrella grenades, simultaneously armed them, and tossed them into the vehicle, totaling it. Noble Six did a backflip, reloaded the rocket launcher in mid-air, and fired it at the nemesis when he hit the ground. The BOW lost an arm and was blown back but finally died when Chief threw a sharp piece of metal debris, cutting the nemesis' head in half. Several jets that resembled sabers flew overhead and dropped bombs on the remaining Umbrella units, sending the survivors retreating.

"It's good to have another Spartan, 117." Six admitted while watching the ordeal.

"Call me Chief." He said before walking back toward the covenant ship.

…

"She's waking up," Louis said.

Clementine's eyes opened slowly, closing a few times from the lights in the Dawn's medical bay.

"Louis?" She finally asked.

"I'm here; you're safe." He said warmly.

"What… happened?" She said while trying to get up but falling back down.

"Take it easy, you just exited a comma, and you've got multiple severe injuries," Lisa said.

"Comma? Louis, who is she, and what's going on? Where even are we?" Clem asked, becoming more restless.

"It's okay. Chief rescued you and AJ after Carver and Lily took you." Louis giggled a bit. "He did a number on the place too."

Clem looked around the room and saw Jaxx in another medical bed, sleeping. This genuinely scared her.

"Okay, what the hell is that?" She asked in a panic.

"Oh, that's Jaxx. Remember those aliens Chief and Cortana told us about? Well, Chief's ship was not the only one to end up here. A covenant ship crashed a little ways from here, but some defectors escaped and found Chief. They helped rescue you, and that one, in particular, killed Lily." Louis said.

Clem found some amount of comfort in the knowledge that Lily was dead. She still had burning questions, but at least AJ was safe too. "What happened to Ericson?"

"We had to leave; there were too many walkers after the battle. Besides, we lost Omar." Louis admitted.

Clem slowly put her head down on the pillow. "How's Aasim taking this?"

"Not well, he barely talks to anybody right now," Louis said.

"Did everyone else make it?" Clementine asked.

"Well, Violet almost got herself and Jaxx killed an hour ago, but yes." Louis joked.

"To answer an earlier question, I'm Dr. Lisa Loud. Your friend, Violet, and that 'covenant' helped me, my partner, and my niece escape Umbrella." Lisa said.

"Umbrella?" Clem asked curiously.

"Some really bad people who may have started the infection. Don't worry about them right now, though; we're on Chief's ship the Forward unto Dawn. Cortana has everything under control, and another group called Monarch is defending the ship." Louis said.

"And I'm glad to see you awake," Cortana said, appearing on a table next to Clementine's bed.

"Cortana, I can't thank you and Chief enough for everything you've done for us," Clementine said.

"Don't thank me; I didn't do much. If you should be thanking anybody, it is Dr. Loud. She stabilized you when I was giving up." Cortana said.

"Don't thank me; I was just returning a favor," Lisa said.

"Where's Chief?" Clementine asked.

"He and a couple of our covenant allies are at the covenant ship right now," Cortana said.

"How's that going?" Louis asked.

"Well, they just beat Umbrella back and are currently sweeping the ship of walkers," Cortana said.

"That's good," Louis said.

"Hey, Cortana. This ship has faster than light speed capabilities, correct?" Lisa asked.

"Well, yes," Cortana said, a bit puzzled.

"Would you mind if I took a look at main engineering?" Lisa asked.

"Umm… No, I'll direct you to it?" Cortana said.

Lisa walked out of the medical bay, only for AJ and Violet to enter.

"Clem!" AJ yelled as he ran up to and hugged her.

"Careful Goofball, I'm not all better yet," Clem said, happy to see him all right.

"Did she freak out when she saw Jaxx?" Violet asked Louis.

"Yeah, you were right," Louis admitted.

"So, I hear you did something stupid," Clementine asked.

"Okay, it's only stupid if you let Cortana tell you about it," Violet said sarcastically.

"No, I told her. And it was stupid." Louis said.

"Hey, who found the mad scientist that saved her life?" Violet asked.

"Fair enough," Louis said.

Just then, Clementine noticed a change with Violet.

"Violet, your eye?" She asked in shock.

"Oh, you like it? It's a functional prosthetic. Cortana made it for me when we got here." She said proudly. "I think she's also working on a leg for you."

"Oh, that's great," Clem said a bit surprised.

"Yeah, don't worry. They only feel weird for a couple of hours before you get used to them." Violet said.

"Clem, maybe you can play soccer again," AJ suggested.

"I don't know kid; I hear Violet's new boyfriend is a 'wicked shot' with 'pretty much anything,'" Louis said.

"He is not my boyfriend!" Violet protested.

"Who?" Clem asked in an interested tone.

"Uh, see what you did, Louis. You know spreading rumors is a bad habit." Violet said.

Louis answered the original question, "Carl Grimes."

"He's Lisa's partner and one of the people that Jaxx and I rescued." Violet said before turning to Clementine, "And he's not my boyfriend!"

"Oh, really, is that why you couldn't shut up about him while we were waiting for Lisa?" Louis asked sarcastically.

"I plead the 5th," Violet said making Louis and Clem laugh, and AJ get confused.

…

"You chose your champion wisely. He is strong, perhaps even strong enough to rival my own."

"Indeed, he is strong, but you still underestimate him."

"And rightly so, for he has not yet faced his own greatest enemy. The one of my choosing has already overcome it."

"Even in all your countless years, you still are blind to the truth."

"Truth is whatever we make it."

"No, even still, you deny the outcome of our war. But I warn you, my old enemy, that yours is a fatal mistake."

"We shall see, my old enemy, we shall see."


	10. Never Leave a Man Behind

**(Hey everyone! Happy New Years! 2020 is here and I want to pick up the frequency of updates for this story. Fitting that chapter, ten comes out in 2020! Yes, 10 chapters already! To be honest, this is where the fun stuff starts. So let us kick off the New Year with a bang, and a ton of Chief action. Please leave a review, good or bad it helps.)**

**A brief recap of the last chapter:**

Umbrella attempted to board the covenant ship.

Noble six, along with the newly formed Fire-team Legion, successfully boarded the ship.

Six and Chief met and preceded to demolish the umbrella forces outside the ship.

Clementine woke up from her coma and was reunited with Louis, AJ, and Violet.

**(I do not own Halo, the Walking Dead, or any other franchise that I may borrow from.)**

…

Monarch troops raced around a hastily established base outside of the covenant ship. Chief felt some amount of comfort knowing that some semblance of the old world still survived. He entered the medical tent where field medics and surgeons were finishing treatment on Terra. Many of them were still in awe of the elite, as she _was_ an alien.

"Sir." One of the medics said in a solute, which caught Chief off guard.

"At ease, what's her status?" Chief asked.

The doctor relaxed his arm, "Stable, her wounds were pretty severe but she did a good job with first aid and her big blue friend managed to control the blood loss. I expect her to make a full recovery." The man said.

Chief quickly looked him over, he was African American with a baldhead and study glasses. He wore a combat medic uniform and had a colt-1911 side arm strapped to his leg.

"And you are?" Chief asked.

"Staff Sargent Robert Higgins. Chief medical officer here for the time being, sir." Sgt. Higgins answered.

Before Chief could ask any more questions, Six walked in.

"General on deck!" One of the men guarding the door yelled before everyone stood in a salute.

"At ease." He said before everyone returned to their duties. "117, I believe I promised you a sitrep. Follow me."

John did as instructed and followed the Spartan into his temporary command tent.

"I can't overstate the advantage that your presence here and the capture of this ship has given us, 'Chief.' We have been fighting a seemingly hopeless war since the day the virus went global, nearly 11 years ago." Six said.

"Umbrella _is_ responsible for the virus then?" Chief asked.

"Affirmative, from what our intelligence has gathered Umbrella was a biological arms dealer before they discovered an incredibly contagious pathogen. They then weaponized it and deployed it using a kinetic launcher located in South America." Six explained.

"Is there a confirmed motive?" Chief asked.

"Negative. Even after a decade of all this, we're still figuring that one out." Six said.

"Another thing, I'm aware that you were a head hunter. But you seem pretty talkative for somebody of that walk of life." Chief observed.

"Eleven years here will do that to you." Six explained. "Besides, you can't hide behind the helmet forever when you're in command. My previous C.O. taught me that much." Six explained.

"How many people here are aware of our… Origins." Chief asked.

"About everyone in USA controlled territories is well aware of the basics; what the covenant were, the tech of the UNSC. Only the higher ups in the military and government know the details. Especially surrounding the Spartan program." Six explained.

Chief breathed a mental sigh of relief. Nobody needed to know what the Spartans were originally meant to do nor where they came from.

"And the USA?" Chief asked.

"One of the few remaining governments. Umbrella did a thorough job of plunging the world into anarchy. Only real governments who are still around are the USA, North Korea, Israel, and Syria. Everyone else either couldn't stop the initial outbreak or were destroyed by Umbrella. Now, the USA is a fragment of what it used to be. We control Hawaii, an island in the pacific called Midway, Hong Kong, and several coastal cities on the main land. The only reasons that we are still around are me, and the technology that my helmet's database provided." Six said.

"Assault rifles and Sabers?" Chief asked.

"Yes, as well as scorpion tanks, Warthogs, Hornets, and sniper rifles. Although the United States versions are far inferior to they're UNSC counterparts." Six added. "But with you, this ship, and the Forward Until Dawn, we might be able to turn the tables on Umbrella. They have outnumbered and outgunned us at every turn. Would you be willing to help us give them a taste of their own medicine?"

"On one condition." Chief said.

"That being?" Six asked.

"You get those kids onboard the Dawn to the safest part of Hawaii. And make sure that they're well cared for." Chief said.

"Done." Six said.

Before either could say another word, a marine ran into the tent. She had pale skin, blond hair, and green eyes. Her uniform was that of a standard US marine.

"Sirs! Our scouts just spotted a _massive_ herd headed this way." She yelled out of breath.

"Slow down Marine, about how many are there?" Six asked.

"Initial reports say about fifteen hundred. And they're already within a mile of the camp!" She said.

Six turned to John, "I need those things dead ASAP."

"On it." John said before picking up his storm rifle and following the marine.

John followed her to the entrance of the camp where several armored vehicles were located. One of which happened to be a warthog.

"Marine, you're driving." John said.

This took the soldier off guard.

"Sir, I'm not cleared to drive vehicles. I, well… I'm not a great driver." She stuttered.

"There's no time to argue, just keep the vehicle steady for me." Chief said before mounting the turret.

The marine uneasily got into the driver seat and started the jeep. She drove out the gate and continued on the main road until the front of the herd became visible. Chief opened fire, cutting down swaths of walkers at a time. Chief had a kill streak going when the warthog suddenly jerked violently.

"Sorry!" The marine yelled.

"Eyes on the road soldier." Chief said as he continued to fire the gun.

Chief had finished off about a quarter of the herd in the time that the vehicle had been circling it. However, John noticed a walker deep within the herd carrying a rocket launcher. He began firing at the phantom but the creature only needed one shot. The warthog tumbled off the road in a flaming wreck. Chief regained awareness after a couple seconds but the entire herd was already closing in on them. He quickly looked around and spotted the marine lying on the ground, unconscious. Chief wasted no time in grabbing his storm rifle and firing at the leading walkers. The marine slowly regained consciousness, although a walker had already closed the distance between her and itself. She drunkenly struggled for her side arm as the corpse tried to bite and scratch her. Another walker joined in the fight and began overpowering the marine, as more neared the three. Eventually, one of the walkers managed to bite her shoulder. Knowing that she was dead regardless, the marine stopped struggling and embraced her fate. The walkers didn't get to savor their kill though, as Chief blasted them all with a magnum.

"Get up; we've got to fall back." Chief ordered.

The marine did not move, maybe from shock or because she had given up hope.

"Soldier, we've got to go." Chief yelled as the herd advanced.

The marine turned her shoulder and showed Chief the bite wound.

"Sir, I'm dead. Just leave me as a distraction." She said hopelessly.

"No way in hell." Chief answered before picking the marine up and running into the forest.

…

"Sir, 117 has diverted the herd away from the camp. However, we found his warthog, apparently hit by a rocket launcher." Shark reported to Six, who had been finalizing a counter attack strategy on Umbrella.

"Whisperers?" Six asked.

"We believe so, sir." Shark answered.

"Track the herd; hit it with air raids when we can. The Chief will figure a way out." Six ordered.

Shark started walking out of the tent and suddenly turned around, "One more thing sir, it appears that Private Kit went with him."

Six didn't even move his head away from the battle charts and maps, "Don't expect her to come back."

"Yes sir." Shark answered before leaving to relay orders.

…

Chief continued running until he had put a couple miles between himself and the herd. He found a steam that had natural camouflage of fallen trees and set Private Kit down.

"You should have left me. I'm no good to anyone now." She said as Chief looked at the bite.

"You never leave a man behind." Chief answered. "What's your name?"

"Private Ariel Kit, although that doesn't matter anymore. In a few hours, I'll just be a casualty statistic." She said.

"No family?" Chief asked as he examined the surrounding area of the bite.

"No, I'm an orphan from Anchorage." She said before wincing in pain.

Chief saw that some of the veins around the bite had already become swollen. His medical expertise was limited but he knew that she didn't have much time.

"How about your squad mates? Do you have any friends?" He asked, not caring for an answer but instead just trying to keep her awake.

"No, I'm the worst shot in my squad, a terrible driver, and a poor listener. Before this, the best assignment that I could get was security detail. Nobody in the whole world is going to miss me." She said trying to hold back tears.

"You're not dead yet." Chief said, in an effort to reassure her.

"I am. You can't stop a walker bite on the shoulder!" She said, now in full on tears.

Chief let her have some space while he stepped out into the open and activated his com. "Cortana, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear. You know, I was beginning to think that you had forgot about me." Cortana joked.

"No time for humor, I've got a United States marine here with a walker bite on her shoulder. If I get her to the Dawn, can you do anything for her?" Chief asked.

"Maybe, how long ago did she get bit?" Cortana asked.

"Less than 20 minutes ago." Chief said.

"Okay, I think there is a person onboard who can help her. Just get her here in one piece." Cortana said.

"Also, there's a herd of about a thousand near my position. Would you mind clearing it out?" Chief asked.

"I wouldn't recommend being in the area in around ten minutes." Cortana said jokingly.

"Chief out." He said as he returned to the marine.

"Okay, there might be someone who can help you. But we need to leave now." Chief said.

Ariel simply nodded her head as Chief picked her up and started the long run back to the Dawn.

…

"How could this happen! You let Monarch get its filthy hands on a f***ing alien space ship!" The general yelled.

"Sir, there was nothing more that I could do. Noble Leader himself engaged my forces and had aid from another, arguably stronger, Spartan." Nix responded.

"You had far superior numbers and firepower, Major. Not to mention A WHOLE COMPLIMENT OF BOWs! A compliment, that is now not only KIA, but in the hands of Monarch!" The general roared.

Before the general could rip Nix's throat out, an intelligence officer walked into the room. "Sirs, our Whisperer assets have located and cut off the new Spartan and his support."

"And just exactly what would that support consist of?" The general asked in a hostile tone.

"One marine." The intelligence officer answered in smirk tone.

The general turned to Nix, "Do you think you can handle one stupid marine and one Spartan, major?"

"Yes sir!" Nix yelled.

"You'd better. Now get out of my sight!" The general roared.

Nix left the room and returned to his command room. When he walked in, he noticed a familiar face.

"Agent Black Omen! To what do I owe the pleasure?" Nix asked.

"The pleasure's my own major." Jackson Darrick said as he shook Nix's hand.

"I heard that Carver's settlement got destroyed. We assumed that you were KIA." Nix observed.

"I had been extracted before the fighting started. And I will say that I won't be missing anybody in that miserable town." Jackson joked.

"Good to hear, Carver sounded like a real low life." Nix said as he took a seat.

"You have no idea, major." Jackson said. "At any rate, I'm here to gather Intel about our new Spartan friend. I have been told that your troops had a firsthand encounter with him just recently."

Nix grabbed a flash drive off a table and handed it to Jackson. "Not much on there but it's all the footage that we got of the guy."

"Did you happen to notice any particular strategy or tactic that they used?" Jackson asked.

"No, but he made good use of the debris around him. Killed a couple of BOWs with that stuff alone." Nix said as Jackson wrote something down on a note pad. "You know, I did just receive word that he had been spotted in Whisperer territory. Would you mind joining me and my company in tracking him down?"

Jackson's face lit up at the offer, "Indeed I would, major."

…

Chief had been running for hours. The only break he had taken happened to be taking cover from Cortana's Archer Missile strike on the walker herd. Since then he had been doing nothing but running and occasionally killing a stray walker or two. John could not stop thinking about two things though. One, what was that walker with a rocket launcher? And two, what could Umbrella possibly hope to accomplish by unleashing the virus. He decided to contemplate the latter first. Sure, they could take over the world, but there wouldn't be much of a world left to rule if they had totally succeeded in destroying every country's government. Maybe they could just be anarchists, but that wouldn't explain why they had been setting up puppet governments in towns like Carvers'. They had to have an end goal, but Chief couldn't wrap his head around what. After failing to determine an answer to the second question, Chief transitioned to the first. Maybe the walker was another of those BOWs. Maybe it was a human wearing a disguise. Chief found the latter more likely. He continued running until he reached a break in the tree line and noticed that the sun had gotten dangerously low.

'The irony.' He though as he bashed a stray walker's head in.

Just after he reached the beginning of another tree line, he saw vehicle lights down the road. Chief didn't have time to wait to see if they were Monarch. He kept running into an increasingly dark forest full of walkers.

'How'd the ODSTs get night vision but we didn't?" Chief though as he continued to run.

Eventually he ran into a cliff side, which extended for miles. He started climbing but heard several shouts in the distance. They didn't sound friendly.

'Great, now I'm going have to kill these guys before moving on!' Chief though as he dropped down to the forest floor and set Ariel down in well-hidden spot.

"Stay here, I'll be back." He said after handing her a magnum and turning her so that she could fire it without much effort.

Chief then ran off in search of the Umbrella scouts. He soon saw a Special Forces team, decked out in stealth gear and high caliber weapons. Chief used his active camo unit to sneak up on the one who he presumed to be their leader. He grabbed the soldier and twisted his neck, all in the blink of an eye. The team recoiled as their leader fell dead, some fired shots at the trees around them, and others simply scanned the area. One soldier examined the corpse of his leader, only to find his combat knife missing. Before he could say anything, though, the knife reappeared in the back of his head. Chief wasted no time in roundhouse kicking the next closest soldier in the knee, shattering every bone in her entire leg instantly. She raised her head to scream but got a knife across the neck instead. The remaining soldiers began firing in random directions, and one by one, they all fell dead from stab wounds and well placed melee strikes. Chief began moving away but stopped when one of the soldier's radios went off.

"Bravo team, what the hell _was_ all that?" It said.

Chief picked up the radio, "We encountered a hostile team and have eliminated all threats but sustained heavy casualties. Requesting reinforcements."

There was no answer.

"I repeat, requesting reinforcements!" Chief said a bit annoyed.

"Hello, 'Chief.'" The voice said menacingly.

"Who is this?" John asked.

"Someone who is very eager to meet you, and your little marine friend." Major nix said.

Chief crushed the radio with his bare hands and looked around. He saw some faint light in the distance, but his motion tracker suddenly lit up. It revealed about five squads closing on his position from every direction. He deactivated his camo unit and grabbed his storm rifle. When the first squad reached his positon, they found nothing but their dead comrades. Chief jumped down from the tree he had climbed in a Spartan slam attack. Most of the soldiers died instantly and those that attempted to reach their weapons or get back up met plasma bolts from the storm rifle. The second squad engaged but Chief dodged their fire and returned to the tree line. He quickly closed the distance between himself and the enemies, rolling into the center of their group and blasting some of them in the back. One soldier tried to stab him with a knife, but Chief spun him around, kicked out his leg and made him sliced his own neck. Two soldiers opened fire at point-blank but Chief side stepped; making them hit another soldier who had been preparing to hit Chief with the butt of his gun. Chief then grabbed the two soldiers and bashed their heads together, killing them both instantly. He turned around just in time to stab another soldier in the face, with his tactical knife. Chief grabbed the soldier's gun as it fell and used it to mow down the rest of the soldiers in that squad. He then began a firefight with the three remaining squads. The flashes of gunfire and the purple glow of plasma lit up the forest as screams of wounded soldiers and falling bodies filled the area.

Jackson had been observing the entire ordeal as he and two Umbrella soldiers carefully snuck around the fighting and eventually to the cliff side. The three continued to observe, and film the encounter until a gunshot rang out. One of the escort soldiers dropped dead to Jackson's feet. He and the other soldier looked around for their attacker.

"Freeze!" Ariel yelled as loud as she could from behind some rock cover.

Jackson dropped his side arm as the escort did the same. Jackson's observational skills were legendary. He could read a person just by how they held a gun or by the way they walked. Just looking at Ariel, he could tell that she wasn't in a correct frame of mind when she fired at the first soldier. Her cover could have concealed her completely; they would never have known that she was there, and yet she still fired. Jackson saw the gun in her hands shaking and her eyes twitching. He knew that she had been bit, and that her strength was failing.

"Monarch scum!" The second escort yelled.

"Shut up! I'm the one with the gun!" Ariel yelled back as loud as she could.

Jackson saw how pale her skin had gotten and how she had been positioned against the rocks. He knew that she didn't have much time and that she was in an incredible amount of pain.

'That guy is risking his life for her. Even though she is bitten. Why would he do that if he's working for Monarch?' Jackson thought to himself.

His opportunity for escape came when she momentarily lowered the gun to reposition herself to a more comfortable way. Jackson easily grabbed the pistol from her as his escort picked up his rifle.

"Now who has the gun, bitch?" The escort yelled enthusiastically.

Jackson looked straight into Ariel's eyes as he trained the pistol on her.

Ariel hung her head down, "Just make it quick."

"Sir, you want to do the honors?" The escort asked.

Jackson kept the gun trained on Ariel but couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger, couldn't bring himself to shoot an unarmed and maimed combatant.

"No." Jackson answered as he lowered the gun.

The escort took joy at this answer and raised his assault rifle eagerly.

"Stop!" Jackson yelled as he reached for the gun.

Chief busted the arm of the only remaining soldier and broke his neck by slamming it onto his knee. He looked around at all the bodies that he had killed.

'This many people don't die for nothing.' Chief said to himself before seeing a flash in the direction of Ariel's cover. 'No.' Chief thought before running as fast as he possibly could in that direction.

Jackson watched in horror as the escort dropped dead, killed by a bullet from the gun he held. He froze for a few seconds as he thought about what he had just done. He slowly returned to his senses and realized that the marine, whose life he and just saved, was as shocked as he was.

"You killed him." Ariel finally said.

Jackson again looked at the gun he held and back at the dead soldier.

"I couldn't let him… I just…" He rambled on but failed to notice a very angry Spartan charging him at full speed.

Chief was ready to kill Jackson when he noticed the two bodies and Ariel still alive. He changed his attack coarse and merely swiped Jackson off his feet. While in mid-air, Chief grabbed the magnum. By the time Jackson landed, Chief had him in a full control lock and had him at gunpoint.

"Don't kill him! He saved my life!" Ariel vouched for the inelegance officer.

"Who are you?" Chief asked.

"My name…" Jackson swallowed hard as he realized who was holding him down. "My name is Jackson Darrick."

Chief recognized him suddenly, "You were at Ericson the day of the raid."

"Yes, I was." Jackson answered.

"You're with Umbrella?" Chief asked in a more hostile tone.

Jackson slowly looked at the dead escort, "Not anymore. If they find out about this… I'm a dead man."

Chief tossed him against a rock and kept the magnum trained on him while he examined Ariel's wound. Jackson slowly pulled a small syringe out of one of his pockets.

"Excuse me." He said cautiously. "If you give this to her, it should help with the pain."

Chief looked at the vial, grabbed it, and injected Ariel at the site of her wound. Almost immediately, she began to breathe easier and became less tense. Jackson's radio started up suddenly.

"Jackson, we've lost visual on the target. Did you see where he went?" Nix asked over the radio.

"Tell him that the target is moving north." Chief instructed.

Jackson pulled out his radio, "Affirmative, target is moving north." Jackson said.

"Roger, Nix out." The major said.

Chief was still contemplating killing Jackson. He could move faster without him and he would be a huge liability if he saw the Dawn.

"Cortana, do you read me?" Chief asked over a secure frequency.

"There's interference but yes. Where are you?" Cortana asked.

"About half way to the Dawn. I need a pickup or this Marine isn't going to make it." Chief said.

Cortana paused, "Okay, I've located you with a satellite. Problem is that there are Umbrella units just a few miles west of your position."

"I threw them off my trail, they'll get going soon." Chief said.

"Roger, there's a clearing few miles south of your current position. Get there and I'll send Louis in a Pelican to pick you up." Cortana said.

Chief didn't like the idea of Louis being in a war zone again. His pilot job during the raid had been a onetime thing.

"Roger, and make sure he's got a good co-pilot." Chief instructed.

"Roger, Cortana over and out." Cortana said, ending the transmission.

"We're leaving." Chief said as he picked Ariel up.

"What about me? I can't go back." Jackson said. "If I do then they might discover your LZ."

Chief thought about it for a second, "Why are you of all people helping us?"

Jackson sighed, "Long story short, I'm tired of hurting innocent people under the premise of helping them."

Chief wasted no time in grabbing Jackson and throwing him over his back. He then took off running toward the LZ.

…

"Okay, Benjie, Cortana said that we're looking for a clearing in this sector." Louis said to his alien copilot.

"JMMMMFFFYP!" The engineer yelled when it saw a clearing that had been illuminated by plasma bolts and gun flashes.

"Good eye. Looks like Chief's in trouble down there so get the main cannon and the missiles ready." Louis ordered.

On the ground, Chief and Jackson were fighting a massive herd of walkers. They were surrounded and even though Chief had cut down a huge swath of walkers, the circle was getting smaller.

"I'm out of ammo!" Jackson yelled after his side arm stopped firing.

Chief's storm rifle over heated at the same time. He took out his tactical knife and cut the head of the nearest walker in half. He reached behind him with a back fist and caved in the head of another walker. Chief looked for his next target but laid eyes on a walker who seemed to be standing upright and staring at him. Chief threw his combat knife at the walker's head, cutting it in half completely. He quickly grabbed the body and his knife and briefly examined it. As he did though, he realized that it had been a live human wearing a well-made mask. He then threw the body at several walkers who were going after Ariel. Before Chief could do anything else, a Pelican's main cannon started cutting the herd down. The floodlights came on and illuminated the whole field as the ramp lowered.

"Get in!" A Monarch soldier yelled while firing his assault rifle.

Chief tossed Jackson in, and then jumped in himself with Ariel.

"Assets secure!" The Monarch soldier yelled.

"Benjie, fire the missiles!" Louis yelled after taking the Pelican to a safe altitude.

The ex-covenant fired and exploded the entire field.

"Alright, let's go home." Louis said while kicking in the main engines.

**...**

The ramp dropped in the Hanger of the Dawn and Lisa Loud ran inside. She saw Ariel and immediately started examining her. Two Monarch soldiers followed her and took Jackson into custody. Lisa performed some standard checks before examining the bite wound itself.

"How long ago did this happen?" She asked Chief.

"About seven hours." Chief said. "Who are you?"

"Dr. Lisa Marie Loud and you're in my light." She said sharply.

Her response took Chief off guard, not because of her tone with a Spartan but because of her name.

"I need a stretcher!" Lisa called to several Monarch soldiers who were outside.

The soldiers brought one as fast as they could and placed Ariel onto it.

"Get her to sick bay ASAP! She's got about a 20 minute window if this going to work." Lisa said as she followed the stretcher.

Chief stepped into the Dawn's hanger.

"Cortana." Chief called.

"Welcome back." Cortana said after appearing on a terminal.

"Is that the Lisa Loud who created the slipspace theory when she was 12?" Chief asked.

"The one and only." Cortana said.

"I thought she died in a car crash the same year." Chief said.

"Well because of the apocalypse, she and her sister Luna were never in that car." Cortana said.

"Is she with Monarch?" Chief asked.

"No, Violet and Jaxx found her, her niece, and another guy named Carl Grimes during their little outing." Cortana said.

Chief was taken back a bit. He remembered learning about the slipspace theory in basic training. If he recalled correctly, she created the theory but died before she could test it. Nearly five decades later, a Japanese and an American scientist picked up her work and created the first slipspace drive.

"It's like talking to a living legend right?" Cortana asked.

"Did Clementine make it?" Chief asked in a more serious tone.

"Chief, I had just about given up. There was nothing more that I could do for her…" Cortana started. "And then Dr. Loud comes along and fixes her up in an hour."

Chief looked at Cortana sharply.

"What, I was going for the dramatic effect." Cortana joked.

"Not funny." Chief said.

"We're going to have to work on your sense of humor." Cortana said.

"Chief!" A familiar voice called out.

John turned around and saw Noble Six coming toward him.

"I told you to eradicate a herd not abandon the camp!" He said sharply.

"I had other priorities." Chief said.

"So I've heard. Saving one marine doesn't justify the huge expenditure of resources we just went through to make sure Umbrella didn't find the Dawn!" He yelled.

"I wasn't going to let her die." Chief said a bit more aggressively.

"She's a soldier. In war, soldiers die. Sometimes you have to accept casualties to attain victory." Six said.

Suddenly Chief realized what Umbrella's end goal was. They were not trying to take over the world. They were trying to destroy it.

"If you haven't realized it yet, every single life is precious now. Because Umbrella wins, if you don't fight for everyone left on this planet." Chief said.

"And sometimes you have to lose a few, to save the rest. You know I'd think _you_, of all people, would appreciate the benefit of living to fight another day." Six said as he walked off.

"Ouch." Cortana said.

Chief started walking off.

"Where are you going?" Cortana asked.

Chief gave no answer. He made his way to the brig and then to Jackson's cell.

"Open it." He instructed the two guards.

They looked at each other and then opened the doors to the cell.

"What was your assignment within Carver's community?" Chief asked.

Jackson looked confused for a second, "To gather intelligence and act as a middle man between the higher ups in Umbrella and Carver."

"What orders did they usually relay?" Chief asked.

"Usually they just told us to destroy one community or another." Jackson said.

"Did they ever care if you took prisoners?" Chief asked.

"Actually, yes. They usually said to execute the entire population." Jackson said.

"What do you know about the Umbrella soldiers themselves?" Chief asked.

"A lot of them are ex-mercenaries and criminals. They don't really care what orders they get, they just care about food, shelter, pillaging, and raping." Jackson said. "What are you getting at here?"

"Sir, what is your point?" One of the guards asked.

"Umbrella's end goal isn't conquering the world. It's killing off every single human being that doesn't belong to their faction." Chief said.


	11. A Whisper of Hope

**(Hey everyone! I realize this is coming out in March, and I said I would be working on this story more. Sorry. School occupied my attention for some time due to major projects. I also admit to getting side tracked by writing RvRWBYvB. I hope I get to writing more of this story soon but for now, I cannot promise anything. Lisa Loud and Nobel 6 spin offs are also on hold until I finish A New Mission. I do not want to retcon stuff in either story with stuff in this one. That being said, I plan to incorporate Walking Dead Saints and Sinners into this story later on. Please leave a Review, good or bad it helps.)**

**A brief recap of last chapter:**

Chief went rogue to save the life of a marine under his command.

A new faction arose to aid Umbrella, the Whisperers.

Jackson defected and aided Chief and Private Kit in their escape.

Chief discovered Umbrella's true objective.

**(I do not own Halo, The Walking Dead, or any other franchise I may pull from to make this story work.)**

…

The clock ticked, every brutal second counted down to total brain infection. Lisa worked as fast as she possibly could to save this poor marine's life. Her heartbeat perfectly synchronized with the clock.

'90 seconds.' Lisa thought.

She applied a base drug to the infection sight and then to the neck and major arteries.

'70 seconds.' Lisa thought.

She applied another solution to the base of the brain stem.

'45 seconds.' Lisa thought.

She attached wires to the infection sight and the locations of all the injections.

'25 seconds.' Lisa thought calmly.

She ran a powerful electric current through the wires, making Arial's body jump. She looked at the monitor displaying the virus's progress. She breached the initial defensive tumors but the virus still spread.

'10 seconds.' Lisa thought.

She replaced the fuses of the current controls.

'4 seconds.' Lisa thought calmly.

She ran another electric current through the marine, this time making her scream.

'Time's up.' Lisa thought as she looked at the monitor.

The screen refreshed and showed the virus completely eradicated from Arial's body.

Lisa breathed a sigh of relief.

"The infection is eradicated. Cortana, you can take over from here." Lisa said before exiting the surgical room.

Several monarch soldiers passed by in the hallway with Master Chief in tow. Lisa decided to follow them, in order to report on Private Kit's condition. She tailed them to the command room, but the guards stopped her from entering.

"Sorry ma'am, this area is restricted." The marine said.

"Oh really? Well I guess you can explain to your superiors why you blocked a messenger with vital Intel about the briefing in there." Lisa said.

"And what exactly would that be?" The other marine asked.

"None of either of your concern, but I will say that you're C.O. will go nuts if I don't get in there." Lisa said.

"Yeah right. Get lost lady!" The first marine said.

Cortana appeared on a terminal next to the door.

"Hey, let her in. Or Noble Leader will be the first to know." Cortana said as the door opened.

The guards rolled their eyes and let Lisa through. She entered into a rather heated debate between Chief and Six.

"And you're basing all of this on the testimony of one defector and some vague puppet tactics at an old boarding school!" Six yelled.

"From what I've learned, Monarch doesn't exactly have a better theory." Chief argued.

"So you expect me to okay an op in neutral Whisperer country to maybe backup this 'theory' of yours?" Six asked.

"Yes." Chief said bluntly.

Six face palmed, "Now I see why they didn't make you a headhunter."

Lisa rolled her eyes and stepped forward. "Would you two cool it? You sound like you need marriage counseling, and God alone knows how much of that I've done."

"Who let her in here?" Six asked the Monarch officials in the room.

"I did." Cortana said.

Lisa looked at the map on the table.

"Whisperer country is rough terrain. If you want to find any form of Intel, you will need to look in the hills. They tend to build their bases there." Lisa said.

"How do you know that?" Shark asked.

"There is a small independent community around, here." Lisa pointed at a particular basin on the map. "I have two sisters who settled down there. For a while, I lived with them."

"And you're sure it's still there?" Six asked.

"Positive. They are on coexistence terms with the Whisperers, so long as they stay within their own area, and the main town is a fortress. Moreover, they have the best-dammed engineer alive on their side." Lisa said.

"Sounds like they're neutral. Do you know for sure if they'd willingly interact with us?" Shark asked.

"I can't say for sure. All I know is that they are great people who will do most anything for their own." Lisa said.

"Sir, we need to know for sure if the Whisperers are working with Umbrella. Not to mention the valuable intel that a high ranking member of their faction could provide if the first condition is true." Chief said.

Six sighed, "Alright, Chief. I'll send you in. But you'd better be right about this." Six said.

Chief nodded, pulled Cortana's AI chip from the center terminal, and walked out of the room.

Lisa followed the Spartan to the main hangar, which now hosted an entire compliment of Monarch troops and flight control staff. Chief grabbed an assault rifle and magnum out of a miniature armory and walked toward a Pelican.

"Sir, Fireteam Legion reporting for duty!" Private Hunter said in a salute to Chief.

Chief looked a bit surprised.

"Our orders are to accompany you to Whisperer territory." Private Hunter said.

"Is your squad formed up?" Chief asked.

"They're prepping their gear as we speak, sir." Hunter said.

"Good, we leave in ten minutes." Chief said before some tapped him from behind.

He turned around to see Lisa.

"I'm coming with you." She said before trying to board the ship.

Chief stopped her. "No." He said, grabbing her arm.

Lisa wrenched her arm away, "If you want anybody in that community to take you people seriously, you'll need me."

"This is technically a black op. And you're not even military." Chief said.

"I've already lost a brother and three sisters to Umbrella. I want to bring these animals down just as much as you do if not more. Right now, the maximum damage you could inflict to their control in this region is turning that community for Monarch. As it happens, I am pretty well connected in that town. So I'm coming, and nobody is going to change that." Lisa said indignantly.

Chief did not have time to argue so he let her on the ship. "Just stay out of our way."

"Quite pushy." Cortana said to Chief.

"They're the deadly ones." Chief said, remembering how Kelly acted the same way on occasion.

Fireteam Legion finished boarding the Pelican, and the gunship took off.

"Alright listen up." Chief said in front of his new team. "This is an unsanctioned op, we're operating outside the effective range of the Dawn's archer missiles, and this is technically neutral territory."

"So we don't have support?" Private Tucker asked.

"Affirmative. We turn this community and cripple Whisperer operations in this region before anyone comes to pick us up. Am I clear?" Chief asked.

"Sir! Yes sir!" Fireteam Legion yelled in unison.

"Alright, let's get down to business." Cortana said, displaying a holomap of the region.

"We'll set down here." A red light flashed in a clearing. "From there, we'll hike 6 miles northwest until reaching a river. We follow that river and it'll lead us to a basin where our secondary objective is located."

"The community is the secondary?" McConner asked.

"Yes, our primary objective is to locate and retrieve any and all intel pertaining to Umbrella's alliance with the Whisperers." Cortana said.

"Should sufficient evidence be found, our objective shifts to crippling their faction." Chief said.

"Once we reach the basin, we'll convince the community to join our cause and help us complete our primary objective." Cortana said. "Any questions, comments, or concerns?"

"I've got one." Lisa said unenthusiastically.

"That being?" Chief asked.

"If you go with this route, you're going to die." Lisa said.

Legion shot looks at each other.

"Elaborate." Chief demanded.

"Gladly. This passage is shared hunting territory, and the only diplomatic ground between either side. Naturally, it's patrolled by both sides and usually there's a massive herd in the area." Lisa said.

"We can handle a blow through op." Chief said.

"Sure you can. You and your AI might just make it out alive, albeit with both sides gunning for you and your squad dead." Lisa said.

"You're very optimistic." McConner joked.

"Optimistic isn't the half of it, McConner." Lisa said.

"Then what do you suggest, Doctor?" Chief asked.

Lisa examined the map, "There's an old Whisperer passageway through the more southern neck of the woods. We used to use it for smuggling people into the town from outside territories. It leads straight into the outer city limits. You'll find it faster, safer, and generally nicer on the feet than Cortana's route." Lisa said.

"Then that's where we're going," Chief said as Cortana altered their flight path.

**...**

Six sat in the Dawn's new makeshift command center, scanning over maps and troop movements. Shark walked in.

"Sir, command finished the arrangements for evacuating the kids to Hawaii. Delta force will detonate an EMP over the Umbrella sensor grid next Tuesday at 05:00 hours. The transports will have a straight shot over the Midwest, land at fort Packer, and fly escorted to Oahu." Shark said.

"Acknowledged." Six said, without even turning his head.

"Sir, one more thing." Shark continued.

Six turned his head this time.

"Admiral Kyle wants the Master Chief and the Covenant on that transport. From what I gathered, he wants Chief to lead Operation Enterprise." Shark said.

Six nodded his head, "Then let's hope he gets back in time."

"Should I inform the civilians of the transfer plan?" Shark asked.

"Affirmative." Six said.

Shark nodded and left the room. He made his way to the living quarters, which Cortana set up for the Ericson refugees. When he opened the door, Willie greeted him.

"Who are you?" Willie asked inquisitively.

"Lt. Max T. Shark. Who's in charge here?" Shark asked.

"Louis. Well, technically Clementine is but Louis is covering while she recovers." Willie said.

"Okay, where can I find this Louis?" Shark asked.

"You just missed him. He and a couple of others just went to visit Clem and Jaxx in sickbay." Ten said, overhearing the conversation.

"Thank you, I'll be on my way?" Shark said as he turned to leave. He felt a tug on his hand. Shark turned to see Alley Loud.

"Do you know where Auntie Lisa is?" She asked innocently.

Shark smiled as he bent down on one knee to the young girl.

"She's helping some of my friends out. She'll be back soon." Shark said reassuringly.

"Where's Chief?" Willie asked.

"Chief… He's also helping my friends out." Shark said, careful not to let on too much in front of Alley. Ten and Willie seemed to get the message through.

Shark left the room and continued to sickbay. There he found quite a few teenagers conversing, along with an alien.

"Excuse me, but I'm looking for Louis. Is he here?" Shark said loudly.

"That would be me," Louis said.

"Lt. Max T. Shark, I need to speak with you," Shark said before he and Louis exited the room.

"So what is it?" Louis asked.

"I've been ordered to inform you that in about a week, we're going to move you guys to Hawaii," Shark said.

"Hawaii?" Louis asked, puzzled.

"Yes, it's completely US-controlled and walker free," Shark said.

Louis looked back through a viewing port at the others. "I don't know if Clem is up for that big a trip yet."

"We've accounted for all medical conditions and variables in health, she'll be fine," Shark said.

"What about Chief?" Louis asked.

Shark began to realize just how much these kids looked up to the Master Chief, and in some ways depended on him.

"I'm not supposed to say anything about this, so don't repeat it to anyone, but Chief is going as well. They need him in Hawaii for something big we have planned for years." Shark said.

Louis nodded his head.

"If you need anything additional for the flight, just let me know," Shark said before leaving Louis.

Louis reentered the sickbay.

"What was that about?" Carl Grimes asked.

"Well, he told me that Monarch is going to send us to Hawaii. Apparently, it's safe there." Louis said.

"What's Hawaii?" Jaxx asked ignorantly.

Everyone facepalmed.

…

Chief exited the Pelican and gave the pilot a thumb up, signaling them to take off. After the gunship left visual range, Chief rejoined his squad.

"Sir, we've located the trailhead," Hunter reported.

"Let's move," Chief said.

The group began hiking into the thick forest.

"How likely is it that we're spotted?" Hope asked Lisa.

"Not very. Judging by the overgrowth, nobody's used this trail in years." Lisa said.

"How do you know about this trail?" McConner asked.

"My brother, sister in law, and I used it to leave the community," Lisa said.

"This place sounds nice. Why'd you leave?" Ted asked.

"The Whisperers were getting a bit bold with territorial claims. One day a friend of ours accidentally entered one of their new territories, which they never conveyed to us, and got herself stuck in a trap. The Whisperers placed a herd there to protect the land prior to all this, so…" Lisa spared the gruesome details.

"Yikes. That's a pretty horrid way to go." Hope said.

"Anyways, my brother didn't want to raise a family in an environment where one misstep could get you eaten. So, we said our goodbyes and left." Lisa said.

"Why'd the community stop using this trail?" McConner asked.

"I don't know. Could be any number of reasons, Whisperers found out about it, herd moved through, or they found a better route." Lisa said.

"Duck," Chief said.

"What?" Everyone said unanimously.

Chief sprawled, quickly followed by his team.

"What's happening?" Ted whispered.

Chief pointed to the ridgeline, to which McConner pulled his sniper rifle out.

"Yep, that's a scout," McConner said.

"Whose side? And did they see us?" Lisa asked.

"Whisperer, I think. He's wearing an odd mask. I don't think he spotted us though." McConner said.

"Drop him," Hunter ordered.

Chief raised his hand, blocking the order. He then pointed to several other spots on the ridge.

"Gees, they've got overwatch on this entire forest," McConner muttered.

"No wonder they stopped using this route. Anybody moving through here would get their head blown off." Hope said.

"We can still make it. Stay down and move sporadically toward the river." Chief said.

"The river is more open than anywhere in the tree line! We'd be sitting ducks!" Hunter protested.

"No, he's right. It's not uncommon for walkers to stumble into the river. We'd pick them up all the time out in the basin." Lisa said.

"Move to the river bank, and roll down the slope. Once you're in, float like a body until the current calms down. We'll rendezvous on the shoreline of the objective." Chief ordered.

Legion nodded their heads and began a slow crawl toward the river. Chief reached the shore long before anyone else.

"Best go stealth for right now," Cortana suggested.

Chief initiated his active camo module and jumped into the center of the river. Lisa reached the shore next, not having to carry the tactical gear Legion did. She quickly rolled down the slope and swam out into the river. Legion ducked into the river one by one, half treading water to avoid sinking under their own gear. The group floated downstream for around half an hour before the current settled down. Lisa eventually caught sight of some less forested terrain near the riverbank. She grabbed an outlying branch and maneuvered herself to shore. She scanned the cliff faces and saw no Whisperers, so she flagged the rest of Legion down. The marines swam to shore and joined her as soon as they caught sight.

"Where's Chief?" Hope asked, clearing her weapon of water.

"I don't know. He made it in well ahead of me." Lisa said, checking her own pistol.

"He's around here somewhere. Not like he just turned invisible." McConner reassured.

Ted scouted the land in front of them. "Looks like a wheat field. Any of this your guy's?"

"Probably, we have tons of these fields set up outside the main town. One of the only reliable food and herb sources around here. In addition, one of the only things we traded with the Whisperers." Lisa said.

"Anybody guarding them?" Hunter asked.

The sound of a shotgun cocking came from behind them.

"Drop your guns!" A man with a heavy southern accent called out.

"That's a yes," McConner said before setting his rifle down and raising his hands.

They turned to face a man with short grey hair, dark skin, and a red handkerchief over his mouth and nose.

"Who are you people? And why are you here?" The man demanded.

Before anyone could answer, Chief decloaked behind the man, disarmed him, and knocked him to the ground.

"I guess he can turn invisible," McConner said shocked.

Chief pointed the barrel of his assault rifle less than a centimeter from the man's forehead.

"I suggest answering your own question." The Spartan said.

The man pulled his mask down and raised his hands.

"Paul Muar and I guard this plot." The man said, quite scared.

"Paul?" Lisa asked confused. "Good Lord, I didn't recognize you."

Paul took a closer look at the scientist.

"Lisa?" Paul asked, equally confused.

Lisa nodded her head and smiled.

Paul started laughing hysterically. "Lisa Loud! I ain't seen you in what, almost five years?"

"He's cool Chief," Lisa said before the Spartan shouldered his rifle.

Hunter helped Paul to his feet.

"Who are your friends? Especially this guy?" Paul asked, mostly pertaining to Chief.

"Some people who have business with the Whisperers. As for the big guy, you wouldn't believe me if I told you." Lisa said.

"Well, I'll take you all to town. Maybe we can help set a meeting up or something. Follow me." Paul said.

The group followed Paul to a restored truck. A red Ford F-150 if Cortana's memory served right. After some talk, Chief and Legion climbed in the back and Lisa rode with Paul in the cabin.

"So how you been?" Paul asked enthusiastically.

"Overall okay. How about yourself?" Lisa carefully defected the question.

"Pretty good. We've made some major strides security-wise. I think what happened to Sam really got to Margret these past few years. She's done everything in her power to negate an incident like that from ever happening again." Paul said.

"Yeah, Sam." Lisa sighed, remembering the incident.

Paul took note of Lisa's response and tried to shift the topic.

"So, how's your big bro?" Paul asked.

Lisa sank into her seat a little further.

"What?" Paul asked, realizing he struck a nerve.

"He's dead." Lisa finally said.

Paul turned a shocked look at Lisa.

"What… What happened?" Paul said, completely at a loss for words.

"After we left, we spent a while just camping from place to place. Eventually, we found another community, far south of here. The guy who ran the place was an angel, and his son turned out to be a really great friend to me. Not too long after we arrived, Ronnie got pregnant so Lincoln finally settled down." Lisa started.

"Sounds like everything was going your guy's way. What changed?" Paul asked.

"A group called Umbrella came in. They attacked us for no reason. We did nothing to them, and they slaughtered everyone in that community. Ronnie caught one of the first bullets, and it broke Lincoln. He sacrificed himself so that my friend and I could get out with his infant daughter." She continued.

Paul just ran his hand over his head in shock.

"After that, I think I would have given up if not for a promise I made to Lincoln just before he died. I told him I would keep his daughter safe, and that's what I did. About three years later, we met these guys. They offered a measure of safety that I could never provide my niece. And for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, I felt like I had a purpose again." Lisa said.

"So you came back to help them?" Paul asked.

"Yeah, and maybe help avenge Lincoln and Ronnie," Lisa said.

Paul rode for a couple of minutes in silence, processing the fact that one of his best friends was dead. Eventually, he found the strength to speak again.

"So what do the Whisperers have to do with these Umbrella pigs?" Paul asked.

"We think they may be carrying out ghost operations for Umbrella. They may also know something more about Umbrella's actual goals, which are still hazy." Lisa said.

"You know it's odd you bring that up," Paul said.

"Why?" Lisa asked.

"Because about a year ago, some kind of cue went down. Their new leader is this absolute creep, goes by the name 'Alpha.' She's broken a ton of treaties and diplomatic ties. We've never even met her face to face, it's always some intermediary." Paul said.

"Sounds like the kind of person Umbrella would prop up," Lisa said.

"Well, I can tell you that Alpha is bad news. So if Umbrella is as horrid as you say, then we've got a real problem brewing on our hands here." Paul said.

The Truck entered into view of a walled town. It looked somewhat reminiscing of Carver's community, just on a much smaller scale. Paul stopped the truck at the main gate.

"Wait here; I'll let everybody know we have guests," Paul said, exiting the truck and walking up to the gate.

He spoke with a guard on the opposite side and the gate began opening. Paul returned to the truck and drove through into the community.

"Welcome to Victoria," Paul said to the soldiers in the back.

The inside of Victoria actually surprised Chief. The buildings were obviously constructed after the apocalypse began, and yet they retained semblances of late 20th-century architecture. A thriving marketplace encapsulated the attention of most onlookers, as well as a large and ingeniously engineered watchtower. Victoria possessed working electric streetlights, a sewage system, and even several working vehicles.

"Wow. Quite the place." Hope said.

"It's almost as nice as Oahu," Ted commented.

"Don't get too attached. We still have a job to do." Chief reiterated.

The truck stopped in front of what resembled a town hall.

"End of the ride folks," Paul said exiting his truck.

Legion disembarked the vehicle and shouldered their gear.

"The order of the place changed up a bit since you left, Lisa. I'll see if I can get Margret down here to talk to you guys." Paul said before entering the building.

"So… We just wait here?" McConner asked.

"That's the plan," Hunter responded.

"Wait! What if these guys are setting up a trap?" Ted asked.

"Oh please! Have a little faith Ted," Hope responded.

"Well, it is worth bringing up," Ted reassured himself.

"If they were going to try something, they'd of done it by now. Besides, who in their right mind's going to mess with Chief?" McConner said.

"As much as it pains me to say it, Ted. McConner has a point." Hunter said begrudgingly.

Chief took note of Lisa looking around inquisitively.

"Homesick?" Chief asked.

"No, not really. It's not like I spent most of my life here. Still, there are a few good memories." Lisa said.

Chief nodded, recalling his own experiences of Reach and the Spartan 2 program.

Paul returned with a woman in her early 60s. Despite her age, she looked physically fit and quite intimidating. She possessed a complete Scandinavian complexion, deep blue eyes, pale skin, and vibrant blond hair. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Lisa and Chief though.

"Well… Long time no see." Margret said to Lisa.

The scientist just smiled.

"Who are your friends?" Margret asked. "And moreover, who's the big guy?"

"Sierra 177. This is my team. The United States Military sent us." Chief answered.

"So… Uncle Sam is still around and kicking after all." Margret joked, only inspiring a laugh from Hunter.

"I assume you're the leader of Victoria?" Chief asked.

"Indeed, 117. Is it okay if I call you that?" Margret asked.

"We all just call him Chief," Lisa said.

"Well then, Chief, I'm Margret Klinger. I do in fact run this here town and its surrounding land." Margret spoke in a heavy southern accent.

"The Chief and his team have information about the Whisperers that you need to hear Margret," Paul said.

"Then we best take this inside," Margret said, leading the group to her office.

Over the course of the next hour, Lisa downloaded her story to Margret and Chief explained the origins of the virus, Monarch, the US remnant, and finally their mission.

"You want us, to break ten years of diplomatic ties with our only trade partner for an outside war?" Margret finally asked Chief.

"Yes," Chief said bluntly.

"Alright then, consider us a US ally. You have my blessing and support to do whatever you need to in this region." Margret said.

"Wait, what?" Hope asked.

"Are you second-guessing my decision?" Margret asked the young marine.

"No! No! I… Ah… Just thought it would be harder to convince you." Hope said.

Margret gave Hope a cold stare and then started laughing sarcastically.

"Sorry sweetheart, I'm just messing with you. But seriously, I owe Lisa's brother my life, we all do. Lord only knows how many times he saved this town. I couldn't care less about who's asking or what they're offering. I don't intend to let his murder go unpunished, and I'll bet every person here who remembers him would agree." Margret said.

"Well then, thank you, I guess." Hunter said, just as confused as everyone else.

"Now, my only question is do you people really plan on going into Whisperer country all on your own? Because that would be suicide." Margret asked.

"That's the plan." McConner said.

"Ma'am, my squad can handle themselves and I can handle whatever they throw at us." Chief said.

"Pretty bold claim, Chief. What proof you got to back it up?" Margret asked, purely for the sake of investigating Chief.

"I saw someone like him rip an entire platoon apart in under 3 minutes, and come out without a scratch." Lisa said, earning an actual stare from Margret.

Chief removed Cortana's chip from his helmet and placed it on the table. Cortana then displayed her hologram and pulled up the footage of Chief massacring an entire herd.

"What on earth?" Margret exclaimed.

"Hello, I am UNSC AI Cortana. I'm also the Chief's virtual partner. I recorded this footage when Chief engaged and decimated a herd of several hundred." Cortana said.

"You are full of surprises, Mr. Chief." Margret said closely observing Cortana and the footage.

"Actually, it's Master Chief." Cortana said.

Margret gave the AI a look.

"She means the rank." Lisa explained.

"Ah. I see." Margret said. "Well, it's already late afternoon and you folks must be tired. You are all welcome to stay here as long as you need. If you need any support before heading into Whisperer territory, just let me know." Margret said.

"Thank you, Ma'am, that's very generous." Hunter said.

"It's the least I could do if it meant helping avenge Lincoln and Ronnie Anne Loud. You all just better kill the SOB that dared take a shot at them." Margret said.

Chief nodded, and the group left the building.

"So, are we staying somewhere?" McConner asked.

"Yeah, there is a couple here who used to host travelers." Lisa gave Hunter the directions. "Just tell them that I sent you, and they'll get you settled in."

"Alright then, Legion let's move out." Hunter said.

Chief grabbed Hunter's shoulder, "Meet at the front gate tomorrow at 3:00 hours."

"Yes, sir." Hunter said before taking his squad to the inn.

"What about you?" Lisa asked.

"I'm fine." Chief said.

Lisa eyeballed Chief.

Chief rolled his eyes under his helmet, "Spartans can go extended periods of time without sleep."

Lisa nodded her head, mostly trying to figure out how that was possible.

"What about you?" Chief asked.

"Oh, I can crash with my sister. She only lives a couple blocks down anyways. When are we planning on heading out?" Lisa asked.

"Be at the gate at noon tomorrow." Chief said, knowing they would be gone long before then.

"Alright then. See you tomorrow." Lisa said.

Chief nodded, and the two went their separate ways.

Lisa took a walk down memory lane as she strolled through the dimming streets of Victoria. All the memories started coming back to her. The little family that she once had here.

'Why did we ever leave?' She asked herself.

She soon found herself in front of an all too familiar sign, which read 'Loud Mechanics.' She looked inside the fence and saw an open garage with someone welding underneath a car. Lisa found the dial to open the gate and typed in the code. The fence opened and Lisa walked up the driveway and over to the garage. She would have said something, had she not accidentally tapped and knocked over an aluminum pole. An ear-piercing sound filled the air; the figure under the car stopped welding and started sliding out from under it.

"Max, I swear I'm going to…" The figure yelled until catching sight of Lisa. "Lisa?"

"Hey, Lana." Lisa said.

Lana tossed her mask and tools aside before bear-hugging her sister. The elder Loud sported a very physically fit build nearly six feet tall, short blond hair, a backward red baseball cap, oil-stained jeans, a sleeveless pink undershirt, and a welding jacket.

"Where on earth have you been?" Lana asked after finally releasing her younger sister.

"All over the place, really. Let's just say, it's been a crazy couple weeks." Lisa sighed.

"You're here, safe and sound, and that's what matters," Lana said.

"Where's Lola?" Lisa asked.

Lana scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Probably gambling or in bed with someone. I can't even keep track of all her insane kids anymore either."

"I take it this Max is one of them?" Lisa asked.

"Oh Lord! He is the devil incarnate. That boy has his uncle's curiosity and his mother's lack of impulse control. Rolled together and…" Lana bit her lip.

"Yeah, I'm imaging complete chaos," Lisa said.

"Like you wouldn't believe. Hey speaking of Lincoln, is he here too?" Lana asked with excitement.

If Paul struck a nerve, then Lana broke a bone. Lisa hung her head down, fighting tears. For the longest time, she tried to forget everything about her brother. She tried to shove the mess of his memory into a corner of her mind and act like the corner didn't exist. Now, she had to be the one to tell her sister that her older brother wasn't coming back.

"Hey, are you okay?" Lana asked before Lisa completely broke down.

Lana knew there were very few things in the world that could make her sister shed a tear, let alone break down into a sobbing fit. Lisa took both her parent's deaths like a champion, even comforting the rest of the family when they needed it the most. The only other time Lana had seen her sister like this was after they lost Luna.

Lana hugged Lisa, "He's gone, isn't he?" She asked, managing to retain her own composure.

Lisa nodded her head while sobbing on her sister's shoulder. Lana stayed with her sister for a while and finally helped her inside the house.

Meanwhile, Chief walked along Victoria's wall.

"Hey, Chief. I'm going to do a quick maintenance reboot, just to make sure I'm ready to go for tomorrow." Cortana said.

"Roger," Chief said as Cortana shut down and began rebooting.

Chief shouldered his assault rifle and gazed up at the night sky. Despite the streetlights from Victoria, he could clearly see the Milky Way in its full grandeur.

"Magnificent, isn't it?"

Chief turned to see a man standing next to him. He wore a purple trench coat with a white undershirt, black gloves, a top hat with wielding goggles slung over it, fine black dress pants, and black shoes with violet trimming. He had pale skin, an expertly well-kept short black beard, and vibrant blue eyes.

"My apologies, I didn't mean to startle you." He said.

Chief shrugged it off and continued looking at the sky. He did find it odd that his motion sensor didn't pick this person up though.

"The night sky, one of the greatest sights in all the universe. It's so simple to take in and yet it's fascinated countless generations. A true marvel, wouldn't you agree John?" The man continued.

Chief reached for his magnum and pointed it straight at this person's head.

"How do you know that name?" Chief demanded.

The man seemed unphased, sill retaining an oddly comforting smile.

"I've had my eye on you for a long time John. Even before the Spartan program, I could tell you were born to be a hero. Such herculean strength, odyssian guile, and yet humility unknown to the universe for centuries." The man complimented.

"What are you? Some kind of Covenant? A Forerunner?" Chief pressed.

The man chuckled a little, "I have been known by many names and titles throughout my time; but to you John, I am the Way Finder."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Chief asked.

"I am here to counsel you and advice you on your journey." The Way Finder said.

"Then answer me this, how the hell did I end up here in the first place?" Chief asked.

The Way Finder looked at the sky again, "There is a place called the 'Cave of Souls,' you will find the answer you seek there as well as someone you need to meet if your mission is to succeed."

Chief looked at the sky as well for a second to think. "And where exactly is…"

He looked back and realized the Way Finder vanished.

'What the hell?' Chief thought to himself just as Cortana came back online.

"Well, that felt refreshing. I hope you didn't get too lonely." Cortana joked.

**(So three quick announcements:**

**With the Corona Virus shutting down the USA, I'm getting a small reprieve from school so maybe expect another chapter soon.**

**I'm officially declaring A New Mission canon to Red vs RWBY vs Blue. There definitely won't be any overlap of main characters but the stories will share the same primary antagonist as well as two other support characters. (The Way Finder is one of them.)**

**This chapter served to set up the Lisa Loud side story, which I intend to write after A New Mission is complete. (We are about halfway there.)**

**Please leave a review or even a comment, as it does greatly help.)**


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